The Horse and the Butterfly
by The Altered Destinies
Summary: Ranma and Nabiki get set up for a meeting by a pair from the future, but will their meeting be the beginning of a beautiful friendship, or will one get fleeced by the other in a very scary engagement?
1. Chapter 1

RanHearts01

The Horse and Butterfly:

Fluttering Hearts

By Jim R. Bader

(Inspired by the works of Rumiko Takahashi)

Act One.

Odd how little things can cause large changes in the span of destiny, like the flapping of a butterfly's wings causing a small displacement of the air that results elsewhere as a raging hurricane. That was what it seemed like on the day that a young girl named Tendo Nabiki heard the phone ring just as she was passing through the hallway. She considered leaving well enough alone until her older sister called out that she was busy, and so Nabiki-faintly bored and curious at one and the same time-paused to answer it, and so changed the pattern of what had been her life forever.

"Mushi-Mushi," she called into the phone in typical Japanese greeting.

"Sempai?" the voice was unmistakably that of Ryonami, one of Nabiki's underlings who often helped her with her betting pools and the collecting of loans paid to fellow students, "It's me...are you busy?"

"Ryo-chan?" she asked, though affectionate pet names were most emphatically NOT her normal habit, but she had always thought of Ryonami as the next best thing to a friend and tended to favor her with an unusual degree of attention, "What's up?"

"I just found out that Gosunkuji-kun is taking unauthorized pictures of your sister again, without your permission," Ryonami replied, "I told him that he would have to pay you a commission for that privilege, but he refused...I think he's being stubborn...either that or Kuno-Sempai has been leaning on him again. Can you come to school and help us to persuade him?"

"I'll be right on my way," Nabiki replied, hanging up the phone before calling out to Kasumi, "I'm going out, Oneechan, I'll be back later!"

"Oh?" Kasumi called back to her, "If you're passing by the store, could I prevail on you to pick up a bottle of Soy sauce for us, Imoutochan? Oh yes...and some soba noodles would be nice..."

"Fine," Nabiki said as she headed for the door, pausing to pull on her shoes before adding, "Whatever."

"Oh," Kasumi called out again as if in afterthought, "And could you bring in the mail if it's been delivered?"

"Right," Nabiki paused to check the mailbox at their gate, thumbing through a pile of mounting utility bills before noticing a post card that had a picture of a panda on it. She turned it around and saw that it was to her father from some guy named Saotome Genma, mentioning something about coming to Japan from China and bringing along his son, a boy named Ranma.

"Ranma?" she frowned slightly, wondering why a man named "Dark Horse" would name his son "Wild Horse," but then she dismissed the matter as being something more typical of her daddy. The idea of having a boy come visit their house was vaguely interesting...she wondered if the boy was cute. Then she dismissed the matter entirely from her thoughts, bringing the mail back to the front porch and setting it down by the table, notifying Kasumi of same before pulling her shoes back on and heading out the gateway.

She was therefore not present in time to see her father pick up the card and weep openly as he read the message, or when he called out for his daughters, only to discover-much to his annoyance-that his middle child was absent.

Oh well, he shrugged, Akane at least should be excited to hear that they were having a visit and that a boy her own age might well soon become her fianc e...provided she did not kill him on sight, boys being such a tender subject with her these days...or maybe Kasumi wouldn't mind meeting a young man who was a few years younger? Either way, Nabiki had seemed a longshot as a potential marital prospect, more likely to fleece the boy for all he was worth and thus not a very suitable candidate to fulfill their family's honor, at least to his own admittedly biased perspective...

"Look out!" someone called out just in time to alert a young girl named Saotome Ranma of the danger that was looming over her, and with battle hardened reflexes said redhead ducked instinctively as a metal stop sign when whizzing past her head.

"Why you-!" she snarled as she lashed out with a surprisingly powerful kick, toppling the panda that had attempted to kayo her, sending said panda sprawling up against a nearby ally, momentarily stunned and unable to further attack her.

"Serves you right, you old fool!" the redhead declared, "You won't be dragging me anywhere with such a lame sneak attack! I'm not going and that's final!"

With that the redhead sprang up to a nearby wall and started running, even as the panda slowly dug his way out from under the debris of an overturned trash can, making vague animal noises in protest as the girl vanished with a leap that carried her over a nearby house and beyond the line of sight of the panda.

The metaphorical shoulders of the panda noticeably slumped in temporary defeat and resignation...right up until he began to smell uneaten food among the trash, and without pausing to think twice about it he began to riffle through the mess to appease his endless hunger.

Unseen by the panda or the general onlookers, a man and a woman poked their heads from around behind the corner of one wall and took stock of these recent events, then one turned to the other and said, "So far so good...are you sure this is going to work, Ryo-chan?"

"According to my best calculations, yes, Gos-chan," a thirtyish Ryonami replied, "Now, unless I've missed a calculation somewhere, we should have timed it just right so that the two of them will meet just like we wanted."

"I sure hope you're right, Ryo-chan," replied a thirtyish Gosunkuji, "So many factors could still go wrong...they might not meet at all, or it might not turn out like we hope..."

"Either way we should find out in another hour or so," Ryonami replied, "So just be patient and let the experiment play itself out. With any luck they may be thanking us before too much longer."

"We'll see," the slightly built, somewhat nerdy looking man replied, marveling at the audacious simplicity of the scheme his companion had hatched and wondering if it could truly make the difference that was needed...or if cheating fate were really even an option. Either way they would know how things turned out in the very near future...

No more than twenty minutes later a vexed and bewildered Nabiki was trudging her way back home with a scowl marring her usually sardonic expression. Try as she might she could not make sense of what had just happened. She had been utterly convinced that it was Ryonami with whom she had spoken, and yet her factor had denied that she had made any such phone call, denied with such sincerity that Nabiki had been forced to believe her, or at least believed that Ryonami had believed that she was innocent of luring her Sempai out to school under false pretenses.

But if it was not Ryonami who called, then who was it that was trying to hoodwink Nabiki, and in such an obvious fashion?

That question was much on her mind as another young figure came rushing out form a local bath house, having hastily taken a plunge to restore himself to his regular status, and very much in a hurry to avoid having to ask any question from the men inside the bath, who would have sworn on their Ancestors that they had just seen a girl turn into a boy before their very eyes. The absolutely last thing Ranma wanted at that point was to get himself any deeper into problems for which he had no mental way of coping, and so he was less than fully alert about what he was doing and where he was going when he suddenly took notice of the young girl who appeared directly in his path.

Sensing eminent collision, Ranma slammed on the breaks, but just a little too late to avoid running into the other teenager.

"OOF!" they both said together as Ranma instinctively reached out with both hands to steady himself, unintentionally making contact with the girl as he discovered a certain softness to her body. Said girl started to lose her balance as she rebounded off his chest, forcing Ranma to steady her in order to prevent the girl from falling.

"Are you all right?" Ranma gasped, only belatedly getting a good look at his near-victim, a beautiful girl whose short brown hair was cropped in a curious "helmet styled" pattern.

"You clumsy oaf, why don't you look where you're...?" Nabiki's voice trailed off as she found herself looking into the face of a very handsome teenaged boy, one whose magnetic blue eyes caused her to momentarily forget her own outrage.

"Uh...yeah," Ranma reluctantly let the girl go, "Um...sorry, didn't see you there. I was kind of in a hurry..."

"So I noticed," Nabiki said in an even tone of voice, slowly backing up to get a better look at the pig-tailed boy wearing the red and black Chinese outfit, even as she read the concern on his face and wondered just what to make of him, and why was her chest beating like that anyway? She sternly told herself that she could not be frightened by a little thing like a chance encounter...she was Tendo Nabiki and her nerves were like iron! A mere coincidence like this was not enough to rattle her. She just had to say a few words to the other youth then be on her way back to her home hopefully in time to give Kasumi those groceries she was wanting.

As she continued to move back, however, her foot partially went off the curb even as she set full weight upon it, and the result was that she momentarily lost her balance, her ankle twisting slightly so that she yelped in pain and went down into the street...directly into the path of a car that just happened to be looking for a parking spot at that exact moment.

Time seemed to freeze for just a few seconds as Nabiki-not yet all the way to the ground-got a good look at the front-end grill of one of Japan's top-of-  
the-line vehicles, which was pulling to a stop but not at a sufficient rate that it could avoid running over her like a speed bump. The shock of that realization was almost instantaneous, and Nabiki had a brief flash of herself becoming a momentary hood ornament, right before powerful hands reached out to grab her up, and all at once she was airborne, soaring high above the traffic with a sudden lurch that threatened to displace the contents of her stomach.

All at once her rapid climb to the skyline came to an abrupt halt as Ranma got his legs under him and came down for a one-point landing, the girl he had just rescued cradled in both arms as though her weight were only of slight inconvenience to him. Once he straightened up he looked with even more concern than before into the frightened eyes of the damsel whose distress he had just relieved, then for the second time within a half a minute gap he asked, "Are you all right now? That was pretty clumsy of you, falling into the path of that car like that."

Nabiki slowly turned her "Doe-in-the-headlights" widened eyes away from the cobalt blue of her rescuer and took a good look at their surroundings. To her astonishment it appeared as though they were on the rooftop of a two story building, but that was flat-out ridiculous, and how had they gotten up there anyway? Did they fly? She turned and looked back at the edge of the building, then over it at the street now six or seven meters below their elevation, at the bathhouse across the street and the car that had so nearly come close to turning her into road pizza. Some rational part of her mind did the quick math, estimated that they had come roughly twelve to fifteen meters in the space of two seconds, and with a formula that went something like: "Half the Mass times Velocity Squared versus Nine-Point-Six Meters-per-second-per-second," and with a little handy calculation she arrived at a "Thrust-to-Mass" equation that was flat out insane...or well beyond the capabilities of anything human and mortal.

"Don't worry," he said more confidently, "You'll be all right. I'm gonna set you down on your feet, now...is that okay with you?"

Nabiki just continued to look back at him with a blank expression, so Ranma took that for a yes and began to lower her so that she could rest her weight on her own two feet...but the moment she did one of her ankles began to yelp in protest.

"Ah-!" Nabiki exclaimed with a sharp intake of breath, the pain momentarily cutting through her astonishment as she belatedly realized that one ankle was partially twisted.

"Oh, sorry," he gathered her up into his arms again, "Does it hurt? Um...well...I guess I'd better carry you back down, then...if it's all right with you, that is."

"If it's...?" Nabiki blurted out, "Who are you?"

"Saotome Ranma," he replied, "Sorry about this."

"Saotome...?" No way! Nabiki did not believe in coincidences, and this was a whopper even in her book! The handsome body supporting her in his arms was the son of a friend of her father? And someone capable of an astonishing feat-NO, make that a flat-out INSANELY IMPOSSIBLE FEAT OF SUPERHUMAN STRENGTH AND ENDURANCE-was a friend of her father's? Then who the heck was he...really?

"Um...is there someplace I can take you to get that foot looked after...ah...?" he looked confused for a moment then said, "What's your name again?"

It took two tries for her to get the words out, "T-Tendo Nabiki..."

"Oh, okay," he smiled again, "Nabiki. Now...where would you like to have me drop you off?"

"Ah..." the rational part of her mind gave the part currently stuck in idle a good kick to get her thought processes rolling once again, "I...ah...know a family Chiropractor...he has a clinic not too far from here. I'll tell you how to get there."

"Sure then, Nabiki-san," the handsome boy smiled, and the rational part of Nabiki's mind threw up its hands as the unused emotional side of her persona went "GUH!" in a surge of hormonal reaction...

"Did you arrange for all that?" Gosunkuji asked as he scratched the back of his head with a look of faint wonder.

"Are you kidding?" Ryonami replied, "You think I'd risk Sempai getting hurt like that? That happened all on its own...all I did was time things so that they'' run into each other, literally if need be."

"Well, they've met," Gosunkuji stared at the rooftop where Ranma and Nabiki could be seen talking together, "Think they'll hit it off this time around?"

"I sure hope so," Ryonami replied, "We went to all this trouble just to fix them up, but I'm afraid the rest is up to the both of them. Come on, let's get back to the office, we can monitor things from there."

"I'm with you there," the slightly built man replied as he touched his wrist chronometer, summoning up a time portal to whisk them back into Limbo...

If Nabiki had realized just what the boy carrying her had in mind for "taking her to see the doctor," she would have registered an immediate protest. As it was the sensation of being carried aloft as he raced from rooftop to rooftop, pausing only to vault the distance between buildings, was enough to fray what few nerves she had left to her former "Ice Queen" self-image. At last Ranma dropped down before the clinic of Doctor Tofu, alighting easily after carrying her for over a kilometer at break-neck speeds, and then he freed one arm in order to pry open the door before carrying her inside, all the while Nabiki maintaining the same astonished expression, as if afraid that he would drop her at any second.

Once they met Doctor Tofu, however, Nabiki managed to recover some of wits about the whole matter. Sure the boy was inhumanly strong and fast, and obviously he had the moves of a fighter, and given that he was unquestionably the best looking thing that she had set eyes upon in quite a while, but he was only mortal after all, a fact proven when Tofu snuck up on him with his skeleton, "Betty," and frightened Ranma into jumping onto a door as though he had seen a ghost, a sight that Nabiki found both amusing and reassuring, as though this proved in her mind that her rescuer was indeed human.

From there she stoically endured Tofu's probing touch before he gave her foot a wrap in an elastic bandage and perfunctorily told her not to put any weight on it for the next twenty-four hours. Tofu then asked a few friendly question about Ranma, such as how he had come to meet Nabiki, a point which set Nabiki slightly on edge as she belatedly realized how compromised her situation was and what such a revelation might do to her self-image.

"Ah...we just met by accident, really," Nabiki hastily explained, "I'm afraid I took a bad spill, and Ranma here was kind enough to bring me here at my request."

"Yeah, that's kinda what happened," Ranma relaxed a little, "Well...you'll be all right, Nabiki-san? 'Cause if so, then I'll be going now...maybe see you again sometime..."

Leave? Suddenly Nabiki felt something in her breast go lurch (she would deny that it was her heart, of course, anatomical location notwithstanding) and she rather hastily said, "Go? But...I need to get home...couldn't you at least carry me to my house?"

"Can't you call somebody to come pick you up?" Ranma asked quizzically.

"Uh...sure, but..." Nabiki thought quickly, "...My older sister isn't very strong, my younger sister is a bit shorter than me, and my Daddy...well...he kind of gets worked up a lot about most things. I'd rather not worry him too much if I can avoid it. I mean...you're not too busy at the minute, are you?"

"Uh...well...not really," Ranma turned back to her and said, "It's just...I need to get back to China real soon. There's something I...need to do there that I left unfinished..."

"China?" Nabiki blinked, "You have to get to the airport?"

"Airport?" Ranma blinked, "Why would I need to go to the airport? I can just swim there, like I did the last time..."

"Swim?" Nabiki blurted out, only to decide a second later that the pigtailed boy had to be making a joke, so she just smiled and put on her most saccharine-sweet look of entreaty as she said, "Please?"

"Uh..." now Ranma seemed to be the one at a loss for words as he stared at the really cute girl giving him the pleading look that might have given cavities to an Oni, or insulin shock to a grizzly. He found himself agreeing to give her another lift to her home, only this time the girl insisted that they not travel at rooftop level, so he found himself shortly thereafter carrying her as he walked down the street, feeling very strange about the matter as the girl heaved a sigh and placed her head against his shoulder.

"You're strong," she said in clear admiration, "You must work out a lot...Ranma-  
kun."

"Er...yeah," he replied, "I'm a martial artist...heir to the Saotome Ryu of Anything Goes..."

"Anything Goes?" Nabiki reacted with a start, turning to look at him with yet another astonished reaction.

"Uh...yeah...why?" he asked, now utterly bewildered at the behavior of this mercurial girl whom he had only just met by chance a short time back.

"My father teaches the Tendo Ryu of Anything Goes Martial Arts," Nabiki revealed, "It sounds almost like the very same system..."

"You mean your Pop studies Kempo?" Ranma blinked, "Whoah...what are the odds?"

"You'd never believe me if I quoted them to you," Nabiki replied, "I guess that means your father and my Daddy must know each other..."

"Yeah," Ranma agreed, "Or else they studied the same system. Uh...hey...you wouldn't happen to know anything about a promise, would you?"

"Promise?" Nabiki asked, "What promise?"

"Nothing...forget about it," Ranma said a bit too hastily, "It's just a dumb idea my Pop has...it's part of the reason why I ran away from him...he's always screwing up my life with one stupid thing right after another..."

Nabiki was surprised to hear the tone of bitterness in the handsome boy's voice, and reflexively she asked, "Who is your father?"

"Saotome Genma," Ranma revealed, thus confirming the rest of Nabiki's suspicions, "Believe me, you don't wanna meet him! He's a lying, two-faced, greedy, backstabbing bottomless pit who never thinks at all before he does something. He dragged me off to China for this training mission at this place called the Cursed Springs, as if the name didn't give it away, and...well...let's just say he really messed my life up something awful. That's the reason why I gotta get back to China, I need to find a cure for the thing he did to both of us...the Baka..."

"The thing he did to you?" Nabiki repeated, "What cure?"

"Aw, never mind," Ranma growled, "No reason why I should burden you with my life story. It's just that I never get to settle down in any one place for very long before Pop drags me off on yet another stupid training mission. It's one thing right after the other with him, and he's always going on about how important it is for me to be a 'Man among Men,' like the Martial Arts are the only thing in life that's worth doing..."

"And you don't agree?" Nabiki asked.

"Hey, I like the martial arts, don't get me wrong," Ranma frowned, "But there's gotta be more to life than just fighting, right? I mean...there's stuff I ought to be doing with my life that's gotta mean more than just who I'm gonna fight next, or where I'm gonna train. I don't even know what it's like to be just like normal people who got families and a roof over their head..."

"You should meet my little sister," Nabiki said in irony, then suddenly realized what a bad idea that would be, given the effect her sister had on most male members of the species.

"What was that?" Ranma blinked.

"Uh...nothing," she said evasively before adding, "I take it you don't have a lot of money?"

"Only what little we can earn doing honest stuff, when Pop isn't stealing it when I'm not looking," Ranma growled, "I swear, one of these days he's gonna get us both in trouble with the law...he already got us kicked out of most parts of Asia..."

"Mind if I ask you something?" Nabiki asked, "Just how good are you at the martial arts?"

"I'm the best there is, except for Pop," Ranma stated flatly, as if this were not even a question in his own mind, "I never lose...even when I go up against somebody who's tougher than the last guy I fought. I've been doing this my whole life and I've never yet met anybody better."

"Interesting," Nabiki mused, "And...how would you feel about having an agent?"

"An agent?" Ranma blinked, "What would I need one for?"

"To manage your affairs, of course," Nabiki replied, "Help you earn a living, take care of your money, see that it gets invested wisely while showing you how to earn more cash than you could ever imagine."

"You mean like a fight promoter or something like that?" Ranma asked.

"Something like that," Nabiki's smile deepened, "So...how about it? Would you like to have an agent?"

"Are you kidding?" Ranma asked, "But where am I gonna find someone like that?"

"I...could suggest a few possibilities," Nabiki said a bit evasively, realizing as she snuggled into the boy's arms that she rather liked the feeling of being carried, and the close contact was more intimate than anything she had ever before shared with another human being...except maybe for Kasumi and their late mother, who were always good for an affectionate hug when the nightmares happened.

"But...um...well," Ranma faltered again, and Nabiki realized something else rather astonishing, how cute he looked when he was being so awkward, "Ah...no offense...but why would you want to help me out? I mean...we only just met each other..."

"No reason," Nabiki replied, "It's just that you interest me, Saotome Ranma. You're quite an unusual guy, did you know that?"

"Ah...heh...you don't know the half of it," Ranma said a bit sheepishly, then added, "Look...I don't wanna freak you out or anything, but...there's stuff about me you'd have to know about if you wanted to hang around me for very long. It's Pop's fault, really, but...well...I'm not like other guys because...oh no...oh Kami!"

"Eh?" Nabiki realized that a few drops of rain were falling and she looked up at the sky in surprise, wondering at the sudden change of the weather, "That's odd...those clouds weren't there before...though, come to think of it, it was raining earlier in the day..."

"We gotta find shelter," Ranma quickened his pace and said, "Any place where we can duck indoors?"

"It's another few blocks to my house," Nabiki replied with a frown, wondering why the boy carrying her was so excited all of a sudden, almost alarmingly so, as if something bad were about to happen, "But there is a park nearby that has an awning..."

"Fine, I'll take it!" Ranma quickened his pace, though his voice started to arc in pitch mid-way through that last statement, and it almost seemed as though he were shrinking a bit in the rain, even as the droplets fell more heavily, and it almost seemed as though his hair was changing color from black to nearly crimson...

All at once they made it to the park and Ranma set Nabiki down on a metal bench underneath the awning just as the sky opened up all around them into a brief but furious downpour. Ranma took several moments long seconds getting his breath back, but now Nabiki could not help but see that something had fundamentally changed about her companion. Ranma's clothes were hanging a bit looser about his body, and he seemed to have lost quite a few centimeters in height, and his chest was jutting forward a bit and...

Without a word Nabiki poked out with a finger and touched the right breast of her companion, finding it soft and yielding instead of the formerly hard muscle of his pectorals.

"Please don't do that," a much higher pitched voice urged her softly, "I'm sorry about this...I didn't want you to see me this way...I guess maybe now you'll be freaking out about it, but I really did want to warn you..."

"Warn me...?" Nabiki blinked before stammering, "Y-You're a girl?"

"I am now," Ranma said disgustedly, straightening out and looking down at herself, "Now do you see what I mean about Pop messing up my life?"

Nabiki considered fainting, but she was already well beyond such a typical reaction.

"B-But how?" she stammered with blank incomprehension.

"It's a long story," Ranma sighed, "But it starts, like I said before, when Pop insisted on dragging me to a place in China called Jusenkyo..."

Saotome Genma was not a happy man...if anything he was downright aggrieved with his son for bailing out on him in such a craven manner. As if being taken to meet his future bride was such a bad thing (but of course it was hardly surprising that a Saotome male should develop cold feet over the fianc e issue, he silently amended). As if the boy did not trust his own father to look out for his best interest, just imagine!

That said, it was finding his wayward son which was proving to be a bit difficult at the moment, even as he slogged along with a miserable expression, the rain falling upon his head as he went trudging past a local park, a panda in despair, not daring to confront his longtime friend without the goods in hand as promised.

(Damn the boy's stubbornness,) Genma thought to himself, (Just like him to go missing when his own father needs his help to insure we both have a roof over our heads in the future...)

It took the upright panda a moment to register something very odd that caught his peripheral vision like a pair of fuzzy blobs normally indistinguishable without his glasses. In Panda form his vision was somewhat sharper than as a human, and so he turned his head to get a better look at the two people he had almost missed noticing in passing...and then his eyes grew as wide as dinner plates as he saw the cursed form of his boy talking to another girl, one who seemed to be asking questions and nodding her head faintly as she listened to the answers.

(Just like the boy to goof around when there's something important that needs doing!) Genma growled to himself, swerving around at a ninety degree angle and angrily storming up towards the boy, prepared to give full chase if the redhead took off again like an irresponsible coward.

Much to his surprise, though, Ranma just turned to see her father approaching, then sighed, "Speak of the Oni himself...here comes Pop now. Don't get scared at seeing him, Nabiki-san, his growl is a lot worse than his bite."

The brown haired girl being so addressed turned an arched eyebrow and stared in dismay at the sight of the panda, but she did not revert to full panic mode as she exclaimed, "You weren't kidding...I don't believe this! That's your Daddy?"

"Mind if I don't confess to that right away," the redhead hopped down and took a belligerent stance as she confronted her father, "What do you want, Old Man? Can't you see I'm busy?"

The insolence of the little ingrate! Genma at once assumed a fighting crouch and balanced on one hind leg, even as Ranma did likewise, knowing the counter. But then he saw a crafty smile cross the redhead's lips and without warning she surged forward with a kick aimed at the leg upon which Genma was balanced. Her father naturally hopped up out of the way of the kick, but Ranma's maneuver proved to be a faint and instead of a genuine assault, and instead she flipped around in mid-leap and thrust her hands against the ground, kicking upward with both feet and catching Genma by surprise as he found himself being propelled upward by the proverbial "mule-kick," causing him to arch skyward for a rude landing in a nearby duckpond.

"Come on!" Ranma called out as he raced back to where Nabiki was sitting and helped her to her feet, then hefted the somewhat larger girl in her arms and said, "I'll take you back to your place before he can climb out of there!"

"Oh my," Nabiki found herself somewhat torn between dismay and amusement, "Is this what your life is normally like?"

"Only until something exciting happens," Ranma replied, carrying her new friend the remaining few blocks it took to reach the Tendo house, at which point Nabiki urged them to come to a halt so that she could limp the rest of the way, resting her weight on Ranma's shoulder so that she could at least maintain the appearance of dignity when greeting her family with the minimal need for explanations.

Genma fished himself out of the pond, as mad as any wet panda. The boy was going to pay for this, he avowed, just as soon as Genma caught up with her and...

Wait a second...was Genma imagining things or was the boy headed in the direction of Soun's place? And who was that girl he was with anyway? He called her Nabiki...was it possible? This definitely bore closer investigation...

"Oh my, Nabiki," Kasumi-a tall and slender young girl whose grown hair hung in a pony tail over one shoulder-had a hand to her mouth as she saw her younger sister being helped to the door by a stranger, "What happened to you?"

"Tripped and fell, Sis," Nabiki replied, "My friend here helped me to Doctor Tofu's place, then brought me back here. Do you think you could get her a towel, and maybe some hot water?"

"I could certainly get her a towel," Kasumi replied, "But why the hot water?"

"Oh, no reason," Nabiki replied, "By the way...is Akane anywhere about?"

"I'm afraid not," Kasumi apologized, "Father had some rather surprising news...and I'm afraid she didn't take it very well. She went off to spend the night with one of her friends...she said she'd be back in time to get ready for school in the morning..."

"Swell," Nabiki smiled, surprising Kasumi as that was hardly an expression that she would have anticipated, but then Nabiki paused and said, "What news? What did Daddy say that upset her?"

"Oh my," Kasumi replied as she helped Ranma guide Nabiki into the kitchen, then set her down in one of the few chairs of the house, "It was quite a surprise, did you know that Father made an agreement of honor with a man named Saotome Genma?"

Ranma stiffened somewhat and looked more alertly at the older girl, "Saotome Genma?"

"Let me guess," Nabiki said, "The two of them were old friends from their days as martial artists, right?"

"Oh my, yes," Kasumi replied as she checked the bandage around her sister's foot, "How did you know that?"

Before Nabiki could reply their father-a very tall man with a mustache wearing a brown gi-came into the kitchen saying, "Nabiki, ah, there you are! You missed hearing the big news and...Nabiki, what's wrong, are you all right? What happened?"

"I'm all right, Daddy," Nabiki reassured her father, "Now...what was that again about me missing the big news at a family meeting?"

"Oh, quite right," Soun paused, noticing Ranma for the first time, "And who is this?"

"Saotome Ranma," the pig-tailed girl reflexively replied.

"Ranma?" Soun cried delightedly, and all at once threw his arms around the little redhead, "My Son, at last! You're finally...here?"

His voice fell off into a dull question mark, and then he started to feel out the slender body in his embrace, only to be pushed away as Ranma angrily glared up at him and said, "Do you mind?"

"Daddy, you're embarrassing me!" Nabiki complained, "That's no way to treat a house guest!"

"On my, I certainly agree," Kasumi replied before blinking her eyes, "Did you say...Saotome Ranma?"

"Uh...yeah...about that hot water already?" Ranma reminded.

"Heat up the kettle, Sis," Nabiki urged, "You're both gonna get a real surprise when you see this...in fact, I've gotta see it myself just to believe it."

"Oh...yes...I see," Kasumi replied, though it was obvious enough that she did not see at all. Just the same she went to set the kettle over the stove and began to heat it up when-not too unexpectedly-a panda showed up on their back porch, finding his way into the kitchen by following his nostrils.

The reaction upon the Tendo house was equally predictable, Soun backing away in dismay while Kasumi turned around and said, "Oh my...it's a panda," in the same tone of voice one might use to remark upon the weather.

"Stop it, Pop, you're scaring them!" Ranma immediately protested.

"Doesn't he ever give up?" Nabiki huffed, then blinked as the panda did something very astonishing, which was pull out a sign from seemingly no where and begin writing.

"Oh my," Kasumi remarked again, "It looks as if the panda is attempting to write something...I didn't know pandas could right, did you, Father?"

Soun shook his head so frantically that he risked giving himself a case of whiplash.

"You'd be surprised what this panda's capable of," Ranma groused as he went to check on the kettle, "Better sit tight, Old Man, it'll take another minute and...huh?"

The panda was holding up the sign now, which read-surprisingly enough-"Way to go, my Boy! I should have known you'd have things covered!"

"Covered?" Nabiki arched an eyebrow.

"What are you talking about?" Ranma asked, "You hit your head on the way into that pond?"

"What is the meaning of this?" Soun asked, turning from the redhead to the panda, "Who are you people-eh?" he blinked as he read the new writing on the sign and then gasped, "Saotome Genma? Is that you, my old friend? But...but how? And why are you wearing that ridiculous panda suit...?"

"It's not a suit," Ranma sighed, feeling the kettle with her hand, "Guess this is hot enough...get ready for a surprise, you're not gonna believe this."

"Not a suit?" Soun replied, "What are you...?" and then he gasped as Ranma upended half the contents of the kettle over her head and immediately expanded outward, then passed it along to the panda, who likewise used what hot water remained to collapse his form into that of a rotund man wearing a faded gi and a bandana over his head.

"Oh my!" Kasumi exclaimed as she put a hand to her mouth and gaped in amazement at the double transformation.

"Oh my indeed!" Nabiki stared appreciably at the handsome boy now restored to her vision, wondering how someone like him could have such a homely and ridiculous looking father.

"G-Genma?" Soun reacted in amazement, "B-But..."

"Never mind, Tendo-kun," Genma clapped the tall man on the shoulder, "I'll tell you all about it later, but for now we have great news to report. My son-sly dog that he is-has found his fianc e on his own. A real chip off the old block, eh? And such a lovely young girl...I believe her name is Nabiki?"

"Say what?" Ranma blinked his eyes, "What are you talking about Pop? What fianc e?"

"N-Nabiki?" Soun turned his eyes towards his middle daughter, who was simply staring as one stunned at the young man standing within arms reach of her father.

"Oh my," Kasumi turned to her younger sister, "Nabiki...did you just get engaged without telling me?"

There was a momentary pause before Nabiki and Ranma chorused together, "ENGAGED...?!"

It was starting out to be one of those days in the Tendo household...

Continued.

Comments/Criticisms/Alternate Bet Series: shadowmane

And so they met, Saotome Ranma and Tendo Nabiki, but was this a match made in Heaven or simply a case of a tale of two stars seriously cross-connected? Ranma and Nabiki start to take serious stock of one another as the rest of the Tendo household braces for the impact of having Saotomes under their roof, and Akane discovers a new sparring partner, but will she regard him as friend or foe when she hears about his connections to her sister? Tune in next time for: "Getting to Know You," or "A Very Scary Engagement!" Be there!

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If you wish to check out my other works, Please check out my Fanfiction webpage at: . All related chapters of this series can be found there along with my other works. 


	2. Chapter 2

RanHearts02

The Horse and Butterfly

By Jim Robert Bader

(Inspired by the works of Rumiko Takahashi)

Part Two.

She's Cute.

Akane ran for the simple pleasure of it all, periodically punching and kicking the air as she jogged her way home from the house of her two best friends, the twins Yuka and Sayuri. She was feeling a lot better than the night before, when she had still been so angry at her father after hearing his "little announcement" that either she or one of her sisters was about to become engaged to some boy they had never even met. But now, as she came within sight of her home, she was feeling much better about life in general, after all...the sun was bright and the sky was clear, not at all like that freak rainstorm that had hit them from out of nowhere. In fact she had an hour and a half to get ready for school, plenty of time to get a good workout before hitting the furo and cleaning herself up, then settling down to a nice hot breakfast prepared by her big sister, Kasumi.

But as she reached the front gates and was about to enter the yard she heard the sounds of a commotion coming from within. At once Akane grew concerned for, other than their father, there was no one else who could defend themselves in their house. If somebody were to come and challenge their dojo without her around...it might mean real trouble!

So Akane rushed in through the gates and went around to the back of the house, only to freeze in her tracks with a look of astonishment pasted across her features..

A balding, heavyset man wearing a turban and a faded gi was going at it full-  
bore with a young boy dressed in another white gi, the furious kicks and blows being exchanged at lightning speeds as the two bounded all across the yard as though their legs were spring-loaded. Strangely enough they seemed to be engaged in what sounded like almost cheerful banter back and forth, trading insults as though this were nothing unusual for the both of them, and neither one doing serious damage to the other.

"You're slowing down, Boy!" the older man sneered, "Stop showing off to the ladies and fight me for real!"

"What are you talking about, you Old Fool?" the boy snapped back, "I ain't showing off nothing, and if you wanna see how serious I am, just stop running around and you'll see how serious I am about knocking your fool block off!"

At first Akane wondered if she had possibly come to the wrong house, then she started to take serious notice of the way the two men fought, of the way they controlled their speed and power so that the blows that were almost blindingly quick looked almost as though they were just casually tossed about as if moving much slower than they might do at full out. The way they'd leap high into the air and almost appear to be hovering there for several furious seconds came close to defying the laws of known physics, and yet she could see no wires or support structures, no indication that this was some kind of sound stage setting, like in those awful Hong Kong imports that Akane thought of as an embarrassment to Martial Artists the world over. These two were not only good, they were phenomenal, and silently comparing herself to the both of them, Akane began to feel just a little bit inadequate, a feeling to which she was not greatly accustomed.

"Oh look, Father, Akane's back," Kasumi's gentle voice snapped Akane back to reality, and there she found her father standing and watching the two other men go at it while Nabiki sat nearby on the steps with one foot wrapped in bandages, her focus entirely directed towards the fighting.

"Akane, good to see you," her father acknowledged before turning his attention back to the combatants.

"Uh...Dad, Sis?" Akane pointed at the two strangers, "What's going on here? Who are they?"

"Our new houseguests," Nabiki replied without looking at Akane, "Meet Saotome Ranma and his Daddy, Saotome Genma."

"Say-WHAT?" Akane belatedly recalled the names that she had heard the day before on the lips of her father, "You mean...?"

"Oh my, yes," Kasumi said brightly as she set a tray of breakfast down upon the table, "Ranma is Nabiki's new iinazuke."

Akane could almost feel Nabiki stiffen as their middle sister said archly, "He is NOT my iinazuke!"

"Now Nabiki," their father said a bit sternly, "We went over this last night..."

"And I'm telling you, Daddy," Nabiki growled again, "I am not letting you engage me to him without first getting my permission!"

"Well, it is a matter of family honor, Imoutochan," Kasumi replied in a reasonable tone of voice, "Father did promise one of us to the son of his best friend, Saotome Genma, and unless Akane wants to take him for herself, I'm afraid he's a little too young for me..."

"What?" Akane said again, "Me take him? No way! Are you crazy?"

"Then the matter is settled," their father said resolutely, "Nabiki will marry Ranma and that is final."

"Like hell it is," Nabiki growled softly, but she seemed willing enough to let the matter drop for the moment, knowing full well how stubborn their father could be about some matters, yet silently she vowed that this would most definitely NOT be the final word about the matter of her so-called "engagement."

Akane was about to ask exactly why it was that their father wanted to engage any of his daughters to some strange boy who had only just shown up on their doorstep when a resounding splash drew her attention back to the fighters. The boy was crowing something about the older man getting sloppy, when all of a sudden a huge black-and-white form came lunging out from the koi pond, startling Akane, who quite naturally fell into a defensive crouch.

"Hah, what's the matter, Oyaji?" the black haired, pig-tailed boy sneered as he effortlessly dodged the clawed swipes of the panda, "Can't take a little bath in the morning?"

"Oh yes," Nabiki remarked almost as an afterthought, "Something else you should know about our new house guests...they have this really weird condition when they get wet..."

"Condition?" Akane blurted, her voice catching Ranma off-guard as he turned to see who it was who had said that, and in doing so he made the mistake of leaving himself wide open so that a glancing blow from the panda sent him sprawling into the koi pond.

For some strange reason Nabiki huffed and growled, "Yeah...it figures...like I didn't see that one coming from a kilometer away..."

"Huh?" Akane blinked, "What are you...?"

"It's cold!" cried a high pitched voice as a pigtailed redhead broke the surface of the koi pond, "Dammit, Pop, did you have to get me all wet again? Now I've gotta take another bath before we have breakfast!"

"Hah?" Akane just gawped, her long black hair almost curling in dismayed reaction.

"Well, shows over," Nabiki sighed, getting up with some difficulty as she favored her bandaged foot, "Time for breakfast..."

"Oh my, that's right," Kasumi said almost in afterthought, "I suppose Uncle Saotome will need to have this instead of the rice I prepared," and with that she set a second tray full of freshly cut bamboo out upon the table.

"But-but-but...what just happened?" Akane pointed wildly, "What happened to the boy...and where did SHE come from?"

"Who are you looking at?" said the soggy redhead as she trudged along, taking the time to look Akane up and down with a non-committal expression.

"Oh yeah," Nabiki sighed, "Saotome Ranma, meet Tendo Akane, my little sister. Akane, Ranma. Now take a bath, you both stink."

"A bath?" Akane blinked in reaction.

"Hey, it's your house, you can go first if you like," the pigtailed girl said with a slight shrug of her shoulders.

"Oh, nonsense, Ranma-kun," Nabiki smiled slyly, "You're both girls at the moment, right? I'm sure Akane won't mind scrubbing your back if you scrub hers..."

"Nabiki," Kasumi chided, "That wouldn't be proper. You know full well what would happen if they take a hot bath together."

"Yeah," Nabiki said sourly, "Akane'll get herself another admirer, whoop-de-  
doo."

"Nabiki," their father growled crossly, "Show more respect for your iinazuke..."

"I'm not her iinazuke, all right?" the redhead growled before sighing and looking down at herself, "I'm not much of anything at the moment. If it's all the same to you, I'll bathe alone, Tendo-san."

With that the redhead trudged morosely into the house as Nabiki watched her leave while trying not to seem interested, but Akane thought she caught a trace of...something very odd in her sister's expression. On another person it might be either longing or regret, but since Akane was firmly convinced that Nabiki was incapable of either emotion...

"What in the name of the Kami is wrong with that boy?" their father asked with a puzzled expression, even as the panda came to stand right next to him with a sign in one paw which read, "You've got me there, Tendo-kun!"

Akane had tensed up in the presence of the large and dangerous-seeming animal, but the sheer incongruity of the sign made her wonder if maybe she might not be hallucinating, and what had happened to that balding man she had seen before? In desperation she turned to Kasumi, who seemed to understand perfectly her younger sister's reaction.

"Uncle Genma and his son, Ranma, have this...unusual curse that has to do with hot and cold water," Kasumi explained, "They explained it to us shortly after they arrived and...maybe you had better sit down if you want to hear the rest of this, Imoutochan."

Sitting down sounded like a very good idea to Akane at the moment, so without needing to urge her sister to continue, she took her place at the table and listened carefully as Kasumi repeated the story about the Saotome men and their experience at Jusenkyo, but even as she heard the incredible tale she did not fully believe it, and why was Nabiki looking down at her food like that without seriously eating? Something very strange was going on there, and Akane resolved on the spot that she was going to get to the bottom of the matter...one way or another...

Ranma-chan scrubbed herself down before dousing herself with the cold water, then eased herself into the tub and sighed as she felt herself reverting back into her male body. As Ranma-kun resumed his rightful shape he thought about the events of the previous evening and sighed again, feeling more than a little crestfallen.

"Oh man," he complained aloud, "Why didn't she believe me? It's not like I deliberately meant to deceive her...or anything like that..."

Even as he said the words, though, he could almost heard Nabiki's scathing rebuttal, "Oh yeah, sure! Sure it was all an accident, sure it was just by chance that you ran into me like you did! I wasn't born yesterday, Saotome, I can tell when I'm being scammed by a pro..."

He winced as he remembered the way she had pronounced his name, Saotome, as if it were something dirty. It was totally unreasonable for her to assume that he had deliberately arranged their meeting, even if it was a pretty big coincidence...even by his lights! He sighed as he remembered trying to talk to her, of being locked out of her room, which prompted him to use the window...

"Honestly," he felt the side of his cheek, "How was I supposed to know that she'd be undressing? She didn't have to call me a pervert..."

To make it worse his father and her father had taken it for granted that Ranma had wanted to "scope out" his new fianc e, even as he had endured Kasumi's disapproving tones when the older girl had scolded him for his "improper" behavior. The slap on his face from Nabiki had hurt a lot more, even when he had stammered out an apology and tried to reassure her that he was not trying to look at her body...

Not that her body was all that bad to look at, he silently amended, then had a momentary jolt as he wondered where that stray thought had come from. What was he doing looking at her like that anyway? Was he really turning into some kind of a pervert?

"Oh man...like I need this?" he growled sourly, "It's not like I meant to get engaged to her...I mean...I didn't do it on purpose..."

But then he thought of the good time they had been enjoying together when they had sat in the park and he had explained about his curse, and-to his amazement-she had not freaked out or called him any names back then or acted like he was some kind of a freak. She had been stunned about the curse, of course, but once she had seen it in action she seemed to gradually come to accept it. It was then that Ranma had hoped-however faintly-that he might have just met his first real friend. Heck, Nabiki had even offered to represent him as a manager and promoter, not that Ranma could see what she was getting at about him earning a living through her efforts.

He just could not stand the idea of her being mad at him. It was strange, he had never worried before about what other people thought about him, it had never seemed all that important, and he had learned to live by his own standards rather than to measure himself against the reactions of other people Kami-  
Sama...with the sort of life he and his father had lived, the last thing either of them could afford to do was to try and live up to someone else's standards!

But Nabiki was different...Ranma did not know quite why, but her opinion mattered to him, and the thought that she believed that he had been deliberately misleading her about anything bothered him far more than he would have imagined. Somehow he just had to make it right between them again, but he was at a total loss to know what to do to get back on her good side. He had to make her believe him when he told her that it was a weird accident that they had met the way they had, that he had not been looking to get himself a fianc e, and that he would much rather be her friend than get tied down with any supposedly romantic involvement.

Besides which...he still remembered what it was like the first moment he set eyes upon her, that wondering look in her chestnut brown eyes that as much as asked him who he was and where had he been all of her life. He had been startled at meeting such a really cute girl without the least clue of what was to follow, in fact...waitaminute...did he just think the word "CUTE?"

"Oh man," Ranma rolled his eyes towards the ceiling, "I really am turning into some kind of a pervert...but...I might as well go back down there and face the music..."

His resolve in hand he started to get out of the furo and was reaching for a bath towel when the door to the furo opened and that other girl-Akane was it?-  
-popped in with her mouth poised to say something, only to freeze as she stared at him, as naked as a statue.

For one second nothing had happened, but then Ranma yelped and dove back into the furo, crying out in dismay, "DON'T YOU BELIEVE IN KNOCKING, FOR KAMI'S SAKE?"

"Oops-sorry about that!" the girl ducked back out into the hallway, leaving Ranma to fume with an angry, "Who was that...?"

"Oboy," Akane winced, trying very hard to force the mental image from her mind of the unmistakably male and NUDE body of Ranma, "I think I'm gonna be sick...what was I thinking...?"

"That's what I'd like to know," Nabiki replied, and as Akane turned with a guilty start in her direction she saw her older sister glaring at her with arms folded over her chest, "See anything you like?"

Akane stammered out, "N-No way! He's just some BOY, after all! I mean...I just wanted to find out if it were true..."

"About the curse and all?" Nabiki sniffed, "What do you think?"

"Ah...is that guy really your fianc ?" Akane winced.

"What do you think?" Nabiki countered, "Daddy set the two of us up, but I think he was scoping me out a long time before that. Do you know he even came up to my window last night and caught me while I was undressing?"

"WHAT?" Akane sputtered in outrage, "That-that pervert!"

"HEY!" a now-dressed Ranma yanked the furo door to one side and said, "It wasn't like that! I wasn't peeping at you, I was trying to explain..."

Akane did not wait for explanations as she rounded on the boy and planted her fist in his face, knocking him back into the bathroom.

"Hentai!" she growled, "You Boys are all alike, disgusting, the whole lot of you!"

"That's enough," their father spoke harshly, "Akane...apologize right now."

"Apologize? To him? No way!" Akane sputtered indignantly.

"Apologize," Soun said firmly, "He is a guest in this house and will before too long become Nabiki's husband."

"That's assuming you can make me," Nabiki glared at her father, daring her father to get belligerent in her presence.

For once her father did not give in to Nabiki's patented "Withering Glare," but neither did she feel like conceding the point...right up until a hand was laid upon her shoulder, causing Nabiki to start as she turned a questioning look at her now-human "Uncle Genma."

"I'll speak with the boy," Genma assured, "You don't have to worry about a thing. When I get done with him Ranma will know all about how to handle himself around a lady."

"And besides," Kasumi added in her more pleasant tone of voice, "You really don't mind very much if he looks at you, do you, Nabiki? You really do like Ranma-kun, even if you want to pretend that you don't, right?"

"Ah..." Nabiki found herself unable to maintain her "Ice Queen" demeanor in the presence of her older sister, and even Akane was feeling somewhat foolish about her own outburst in the light of Kasumi's gentle chiding.

"Oh man," Ranma groaned as he picked himself up and felt along the side of his jaw, "What hit me?"

"Foolish boy," his father growled, "Come out here right now and apologize to these girls for your behavior."

"Apologize?" Ranma sputtered, "Over what? I didn't do nothing!"

"Ranma," Genma's glasses gleamed dangerously, "Do you honestly believe that?"

"Ah..." for once Ranma actually considered what his father was saying, realizing that he had been intending to make peace between himself and Nabiki before that wildcat sister of hers had interfered, so he turned his look towards Nabiki and said, "Uh...I'm sorry I spied on you like that...I wanted to talk...just talk last night..."

"Uhuh?" Nabiki asked skeptically, "Just talk? Is that all you were after?"

"Huh?" Ranma replied, "W-What do you mean? What else would I be doing outside your window for Kami's sakes?"

"If I have to explain it to you, Ranma-kun," Nabiki replied, "Then you're a bigger fool than I thought you were."

"Uh...huh?" Ranma replied with a look of total incomprehension.

"Son," Soun spoke up, "It's all fine and good for you to be showing some initiative, but don't you think that sort of behavior should wait until after you both get married?"

"Oh my, yes," Kasumi replied, "You're both still so young, you shouldn't be thinking thoughts like that until after you are man and wife. Then...oh my..."

"W-what are you talking about?" Ranma asked with a sinking feeling, "What do you mean after we're...um, uh...?" he looked questioningly at Nabiki.

Akane looked at the strange boy then at her equally odd sister, wondering if she were imagining things or did it seem as if there was the faintest twitch of "give" to Nabiki's expression. It looked as if the "Ice Queen" was not quite so impervious after all, and in the light of that "puppy dog" expression the boy was giving her, it was obviously a struggle for Nabiki to maintain a harsh and aloof expression.

"Well, well," Akane slowly smiled, "Don't tell me you two really are serious about each other?"

"What?" both Nabiki and Ranma had said together.

"Never mind," Akane pleasantly chimed, "Forget I said anything...in fact, forget the whole thing just happened," she patted Nabiki on the shoulder before returning to the table, "He's all yours, Sis...warts and all, and I hope you both have a long and happy life together."

As Akane went back to the dining room, leaving the others to remain where they were outside the furo, she hid a smile of mischief at the thought of Nabiki finally having a boyfriend. About time somebody find some girl besides her interesting enough to spend time with...Akane had more than her share of male admirers, and she was heartily sickened by the whole lot of the male species...

With one notable exception, of course, and with that wistful thought she sat down and resumed eating her breakfast.

"That sister of yours is a very strange girl," Ranma remarked to Nabiki a few seconds later.

"Tell me about it," Nabiki turned back to give Ranma a studied look, "All right...apology accepted, for now. But you'd better be on your guard from hereon, Saotome...if I catch you sneaking around me like that..."

"Hey, don't worry, it won't happen again!" Ranma made a placating gesture with both hands.

"It had better not," Nabiki replied, "Or there will be...consequences."

As she turned away, however, and limped back to the breakfast table, she scowled to herself a bit sourly, thinking that her new "fianc " was a little too hasty in giving that reassurance...and what exactly was she going to do if she caught him trying to sneak another glance at her in the nude anyway? And... was she really that offended? After all, she had no hesitation whatsoever about "checking out" his male body...

Ranma just sighed and murmured aloud, "I don't understand her at all..."

"She's a woman, Son," his father replied, "You're not supposed to understand them."

Kasumi frowned a bit at that remark, but she was much too much of a lady to make a point about correcting their rather foolish male assumptions about womanly behavior...

A short time later, after Akane had taken her turn in the furo and was dressed to go to school, another brief altercation broke out as Genma revealed that he had already enrolled Ranma in Furinkan High School.

"WHAT?" Ranma had blurted out, "Since when?"

"Since before we went to China, Boy," Genma had replied, "I registered you months ago and you were accepted for the fall semester. I talked with the school Vice Principle and he was ready to take you in just as soon as you got to your first classes."

"Huh?" Nabiki looked up in a puzzled expression, "You mean you planned this out that far back?"

"Ever since pulling the boy out of Middle School," Genma replied, "It wasn't easy finding a place that would take him in, but Furinkan's academic admission standards are a bit less demanding than other places..."

"You're telling me," Akane sniffed, though she concentrated mainly on gathering up her things as she headed towards the door, "Gotta run, don't want to be late for the morning gauntlet..."

"Hold up a minute, Akane," Soun called out, "Ranma needs to be shown where your school is, in fact he may even wind up sitting next to you, won't that be nice?"

The sound of Nabiki's chopsticks snapping between fingers briefly drew attention her way, but she covered up her own surprised reaction by saying, "Um...I'm about done anyway, Sis...I wasn't all that hungry."

"So I've noticed," Kasumi replied, not bothering to add that Nabiki had shown less appetite than usual all morning.

"Why me?" Akane complained, "Why not have Nabiki show him?"

"Because your sister sprained her ankle yesterday," Genma explained, "And the Doctor gave specific instructions that she was to stay off of it for at least a day in order to let it heal back."

"Doctor...Tofu?" Akane looked down, then softly replied, "Well...I suppose I could show him how to get there...at least this one time, okay?"

"Hey, you don't have to do that," Ranma turned to Nabiki, "I can get you to school in no time flat, and bring you home the same way."

"Ah..." Nabiki hesitated, memories conflicting in her mind as she recalled the way in which she had been carried by her new boyfriend while he made that death-  
defying race across the rooftops, the mere memory of which was enough to make her more than a little skittish. On the other hand...it had been somewhat nice to be cradled in his arms, to feel the power of his body as he carried her with such ease...and she did so want to maintain her almost perfect attendance record...

Kasumi put a damper on things by saying, "It would be better if Nabiki rested at home for a day, Ranma-kun, but you can carry her to school tomorrow, if you'd like."

It suddenly and belatedly occurred to Nabiki that the sight of her being carried anywhere by a boy this handsome was going to cause rumors to circulate about them, and when word got out that she was engaged to said boy she could very well kiss her "Ice Queen" reputation good-bye forever!

Ranma was clearly regretful as he looked at Nabiki and said, "Uh...maybe next time?"

She was just as conflicted when she replied, "Ah...maybe, Ranma-kun...we'll see..."

Even so the thought of Ranma going off alone with Akane made Nabiki feel a very ill feeling in the pit of her stomach. It was just asking for trouble to have the guy spend any amount of time with her little sister. She felt certain that Akane would steal the boy away from her without really meaning to...after all, everybody in Nerima was in love with Akane in one way or another...everybody...

...And nobody was similarly interested in her, she silently amended, though she crushed that thought under heel before it could sour the rest of her day as she sank back into a kind of moody depression, not even-for once-giving a thought to her factors at school, who might be wondering what had become of their "Sempai."

Well, Ryonami and Numa would just have to get along without her for a day, Nabiki was too busy being depressed to give much mind towards their "business," sulking into grim thoughts of her boyfriend falling for her sister and wondering what she was going to do about picking up the pieces. So upset was she in thinking about such matters that it took a while before she remembered the other significant ritual of the day, something that she should have warned Ranma about, the thought of which would make her bolt upright in her bed with instant regret that she had not taken Ranma up on his offer of assistance.

Kuno...and the Horde of Hentai!

All at once an icy fear gripped Nabiki's heart and she resolved that her ankle could wait for later, she had a boyfriend to rescue...now...where did Daddy put his crutches that last time he'd been injured...?

"So," Akane asked of the wall beside her, "What's the story with you and my sister?"

"Huh?" Ranma asked as he walked along the edge of that wall, directly overhead, "What do you mean? What story? We just met yesterday and then our Dads engaged us."

"You know what I mean," Akane growled in irritation, "What exactly did you do to her to make Nabiki get so worked up about you anyway? I've never seen her look at any guy the way she was looking at you a few minutes ago..."

"Huh?" Ranma blinked again, "Uh...what do you...I mean...she was?"

"Are you for real?" Akane gave a suspicious look at the boy walking above her, "And what's with the high wire act? You think you're too good for me that you don't want to be seen walking beside me like a normal person?"

"Hey, it ain't that!" Ranma protested, "I'm just practicing my balance..."

"Practicing?" Akane repeated.

"Yeah," Ranma replied, "It's like Pop always said, it's all about training. You oughta try it, it could help improve your balance."

"I don't need any help with my balance," Akane snorted.

"Yeah, that's what you say," Ranma scoffed, "But I can tell just by looking at you that you're not all that coordinated. Your feet should be gliding more, and you waddle when you should be light on your toes. You can't really be a decent martial artist unless you learn to move with a balanced center..."

"Are you implying that I'm clumsy?" Akane sputtered, "I'll have you know that I'm a pretty good martial artist! I've been taught by Dad all of my life..."

"Big deal," Ranma vaulted down in front of her and confronted the smaller girl, "So's mine...but the proof is in how you fight, and without good moves all your training doesn't amount to a whole lot of nothing."

"Why you-!" Akane threw down her bookbag and assumed a fighting stance, "That's it, I'm gonna show you just how good I am, you smug, conceited..."

"I don't fight girls," Ranma said softly, maintaining his grip on his own school bag.

"Then just stand still and let me clobber you!" Akane roared, throwing the first punch, only to see Ranma effortlessly glide out of the past of her fist, "Huh?"

"You telegraphed that," Ranma said as he dodged her second punch, and then the kick that followed, easily avoiding her spinning kick that followed, then bending over backwards and effortlessly avoiding a punch that had been aimed at his head, only to right himself again as he smiled down at her smugly, "You see? You're all power without control. You may hit hard but you need surprise to catch me with those punches."

"Oh yeah?" Akane snarled as she got serious about taking this guy down, and then she threw everything she had into a single haymaker, only Ranma vaulted completely over head, did a somersault and landed directly behind her, to reach out with a finger and lightly tap her on the back of her head.

"Tag," he said, "You're it."

Akane was incredulous as she turned around and gasped, "How did you...?"

"Like I said," Ranma cupped his hands behind his head and rocked back and forth upon his heels, "It's all about training. Like Pop always says, every minute of every day you gotta live, breathe, eat and sleep the martial arts...never pass up on any way you can learn a new technique or master your balance. You also need to breathe in and out the right way...it's supposed to be second nature, you can't think about it at all, it's gotta come to you like it was automatic."

Akane relaxed her posture somewhat and said, "You're pretty good...but don't underestimate me just because I'm a girl."

"Hey, I'm sure you're pretty good by the standards of most people," Ranma replied, "But I've been trained by the best, and I know a whole lot about fighting. I've also known a girl who could turn you inside out like a pretzel, but she's back in China...at least, I hope she is!" he shuddered slightly.

"Who is she?" Akane frowned, "And just how good is she?"

"Well, I'm better," Ranma boasted, but then amended, "But...that's kind of the problem. Ah, never mind about her, let's just get to school. You ask me, though, this is just a waste of time..."

"Why?" Akane asked, "You don't think school is important?"

"Maybe for other people," Ranma replied, "But my life is about training. I don't know what good the other stuff is gonna do me, I haven't even been in a school for more than a year..."

"So, what do you want to do with your life?" Akane asked, picking up her schoolbag and resuming walking, "Just teach martial arts like my Dad?"

"I dunno," Ranma replied as he fell in step beside her, "Never really gave it much thought...but...I mean...maybe there's something better for me that I haven't found out about yet. I was telling Nabiki about it just yesterday..."

"Oh yeah," Akane frowned, "How did you two meet anyway? Oneesan was a little sketchy about the details..."

"Ah...it was an accident, honestly!" Ranma insisted, "I'd just gone to this public bathhouse to get changed back into myself when I sort-of ran into her...I kind of surprised her and she stumbled into the street, hurt her ankle, almost got hit by a car. I pulled her out of the way in time, and, well...when I found out that her ankle was twisted I decided to give her a lift to the Doctor's..."

"Let me see if I have this straight," Akane replied, "You startled my sister, almost caused her to get hit by a car, but you rescued her and then played good Samaritan? And all that time you didn't know that Nabiki was going to be your fianc e?"

"Hey, how could I know a thing like that?" Ranma insisted, "I didn't even know that she was one of the girls my Pop said would get engaged to me when he told me about his promise to your father. It was an accident, I swear it..."

"Hmm..." Akane frowned, "Mighty coincidental, don't you think?"

"Well...what do you expect me to say?" Ranma shrugged, "I couldn't know any of that was coming."

"But Nabiki thinks otherwise, eh?" Akane finally grasped the reason for her sister's odd behavior and smiled, "Poor Nabiki...she doesn't believe in fate or coincidence. She must think you deliberately set her up for that meeting, but...from the sound of things it might just as well be fate."

"Fate?" Ranma asked with faint incomprehension.

"You know...like the little red string that Fate ties to the fingers of those destined to fall in love and all that?" Akane tried again, then sighed, "Never mind...it probably just was a really odd coincidence. I don't even believe people fall in love like that anymore, not since..." he tone fell away as she thought once again of a love unrequited.

"Huh?" Ranma caught the wistful look in the eyes of the girl beside him and then smiled, "Oh, I get it...you've got somebody you're interested in too, right?"

"N-No!" Akane protested, "It's not like that!"

"Hey, it's no business of mine," Ranma said smugly, "But if you've got a crush on some boy..."

"No way!" Akane stated flatly, "I hate boys!"

"Oh yeah?" Ranma asked skeptically.

"That's right," Akane growled as she suddenly quickened her pace, "I hate boys...I really, really hate them!"

"What they...?" Ranma watched in dismay as Akane rushed past him towards a pair of gates that were looming up before them. He no sooner read the sign in brass lettering, "Furinkan High School," then he saw Akane charging forward, tossing her book-bag to him as she accelerated and burst forth into the school yard.

To his growing amazement he saw a group of students dressed in sporting gear come charging out from the building like a horde of Mongols orienting upon the onrushing Akane, and all at once a melee broke out between the lone girl and about forty young men, all healthy and in their prime, laying about with practiced moves that flowed one right into the other, expertly and brutally dishing out punishment left and right until all forty of the men were sprawling about the yard, a few twitching in nervous reaction as none appeared to be in any condition to renew further fighting.

Akane stood panting at the center of the carnage, but then she glared a smile of challenge at Ranma and said, "So...how about that?"

"I'm impressed," Ranma nodded as he surveyed her handiwork, "But a little excessive, doncha think? I mean...none of these guys was all that good, and if they were they would have lasted a lot longer. You're pretty good against ordinary types but that's not good enough if you went up against a real fighter."

"Just so," a cultured voice remarked, even as something went hissing through the air, to be caught reflexively in the hand of a disgusted Akane, "But who, may I ask, consulted you for your opinion?"

"Huh?" Ranma turned to see a very tall boy dressed in a Samurai hakama step out from behind a tree, sniffing at a rose that was in his hand as he sneered down his nose in Ranma's direction.

"Kuno," Akane hissed, and from her unpleasant expression it was plainly not a friendly term of greeting...

Continued.

Comments/Criticisms/Curriculums of Punishment: shadowmane

Akane decides to play Cupid (why does this sound like a very bad idea?) while Nabiki rushes to what she thinks is the rescue of her "sort-of" boyfriend, while Ranma has his first confrontation with a boy named Kuno. Be with us next time for: "Samurai Casanova," or "Pardon Me, Is That My Foot In Your Mouth?" Be there!

X -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

If you wish to check out my other works, Please check out my Fanfiction webpage at: . All related chapters of this series can be found there along with my other works. 


	3. Chapter 3

RanHearts03

The Horse and Butterfly

By Jim Robert Bader

(Inspired by the works of Rumiko Takahashi)

Part Three.

Public Engagement.

Walking on crutches proved to be more of an art form than even Nabiki was prepared to handle, and having those rubber padded ends under her armpits was staring to make them sore after the frantic pace she had set, traveling the nearly two-kilometer distance between her house and Furinkan High School. To top it off a light drizzle became a brief rain on the way, further dampening her spirits, but in good order she arrived in time to wind up out of breath and much too late to prevent things from occurring as they must have.

Of course the outcome did rather surprise her when she saw the prone body of Tatewaki Kuno sprawled out in the open, slightly soggy and quite unconscious. There were also a few of Akane's squad of admirers littered about the premises, but Nabiki ignored them as she hobbled along to inspect the body of her fellow classmate, the poetry-spouting Captain of the Furinkan Kendo Fencing team, his bokken laying some distance from his hand, which further added to the mystery as Nabiki had been certain that a crowbar would not have pried it from his fingers.

To top it off someone had indented a red bruise on his forehead that spelled out the word, "Incompetent" (or she assumed that was what it was meant to spell anyway) in an angry red welt that probably would not fade for several more hours. Kuno was quite out of it at the moment, forcing Nabiki to select one of the other prone students who did not seem quite as unconscious as the others. Rapping him in the chest with the business end of one crutch, she managed to revive him, enough so that he blinked his eyes, looked up at her and said, "Tendo-san?"

"That's Sempai to you, Freshman," Nabiki said coolly, then indicated the battle ground with a nod of her head and said, "What happened?"

"Ah...it was the weirdest thing, really," Track and Field Captain Kenosuke replied, brushing hair out of his eyes as he tried to put his thoughts back in order, "Some new guy challenged Kuno to a fight and beat his lights out...it was like nothing I'd ever seen! One minute Kuno was full of himself, as usual, and the next thing you know...blamo!"

"A new guy?" Nabiki did her best to maintain a level expression, "Can you describe him at all?"

"Uh...not too tall, kind of rangy looking, had this pigtail down the back, and he wasn't wearing s school uniform...some kind of red and black Chinese outfit, I think..."

"Interesting," Nabiki said stoically, but inwardly she was feeling the surge of conflicting emotions, on the one hand elated that Ranma had defeated Kuno...on the other hand dismayed that Ranma had beaten Kuno with what sounded like incredible ease. The boy had said he was good, but to see it demonstrated like this...

Kenosuke just then took notice of the crutches that Nabiki was leaning on, glanced down at her foot and said, "Sempai? What happened to...?"

"Just an accident," she said quickly, "Nothing you need to worry about. Now, pick yourself up and wake the others...I'm gonna need help carrying Kuno-chan to the infirmary, and it's a sure bet I can't do it myself when I'm on these things..."

"Pick him up?" Kenosuke grimaced in disgust, "Do I have to?"

Nabiki just gave him one of her patented LOOKS, and that was all it took to stifle the boy's protest. Without further complaint he got up and did as he was told, all the while Nabiki wondering on the specific details of Kuno's defeat, and-more importantly-where was Ranma at the moment, especially in the light of the fact that he had obviously defeated Kuno while in the presence of Akane.

Scowling in displeasure at that thought, she herded the boys who "volunteered" to help Kuno by carrying him into the building, all the while her thought growing ever more dark and conflicted as her mood soured like the weather...

"Okay, I admit it," Akane said, "You are pretty good, and it's obvious that you're a lot better than Kuno, but that still doesn't excuse you making the both of us late for our classes."

"Hey, it's only my first day," Ranma complained as he stood holding a pair of buckets, the same as Akane, "How was I to know it would take that long to put the guy out of commission?"

"Well, thanks to you we're both being punished," Akane groused, though she had to admit that it was far from the first time that Kuno had made her late for classes, "You didn't really have to interfere, though, I could have taken Kuno in my sleep..."

"Maybe," Ranma studied the ceiling as though he was wondering just how old the building was and when was the last time they had bothered with new roofing.

"Huh?" Akane growled, "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing," Ranma explained, "It's just that...anybody who's good enough to get even one good lick in against me ain't a guy to be taken that lightly. You saw how hard he fought against me, has he ever gone all-out like that against you?"

"Um...well..." Akane reluctantly conceded, thinking back to the all-too-recent encounter...

"Pitiful...these weaklings," Kuno said as he surveyed the litter of fallen bodies with a contemptful shake of his head, "How unworthy of your beauty, these lowly wretches, so easily dispatched by the hand of one who is so utterly above them..."

Ranma hooked a thumb as he glanced at Akane, "Is this guy for real?"

"Stay out of this," Akane cautioned as she assumed a fighting crouch, "Kuno, I'm ready for you. Take your best shot now."

"Hmph," Ranma stuck his hands in his pockets and rolled his weight on his heels, "Didn't know you were this popular around here, but what do these clowns see in a Tomboy like you anyway?"

"What?" Akane snapped at him, "What did you just call me?"

"Churl!" the boy in the hakama turned an angry glare towards Ranma, "Who are you who dares to address the woman I love in such a disrespectful manner? Lowborn dog! I will smite you for your insolence!"

"Hey, anytime you feel like it," Ranma smiled, "Just don't get the wrong ideas or nothing, I ain't interested in Akane, and I sure don't plan to fight for her or nothing."

"Why you...!" Akane's eyes narrowed by a deadly fraction.

"That tears it, Mendicant!" Kuno raised his bokken and declared, "For the insult you have given there can be no forgiveness! Prepare to greet your ancestors in Hell!"

"Let's see what you've got, stick-boy," Ranma smiled, tossing his bag to the side and crouching in readiness for the other boy's attack.

"I told you to stay out of this!" Akane flared at Ranma, "It's my fight, not yours!"

"Hey, you can have him when I'm done with him," Ranma replied with a cocky little smile, "This guy looks like he knows how to hold that twig of his, let's see if he knows how to use it."

"How dare you slander the name of Kuno Tatewaki, Age: seventeen, with such wretched innuendo?" Kuno snarled to the accompaniment of some overhead lightning, "Prepare to die!" he cried as he surged forward with a powerful slash that hissed through the air and cleaved the space where Ranma had been standing.

But Ranma was already airborne, somersaulting around behind Kuno before declaring, "My name is Saotome Ranma of the Saotome Ryu of Anything Goes Martial Arts!" he landed nimbly on his feet and assume a fighting crouch, "And I accept your challenge!"

"You evaded my thrust?" Kuno arched an eyebrow as he assumed a new fighting stance, "You do possess some trifling skill, but my next attack shall smite thee!"

"Smite?" Ranma blinked as he glanced at Akane "Is that even a word?"

"Look out!" Akane cried out in warning, seeing Kuno surge forward like a vengeful destroyer.

To her amazement-and that of Kuno-Ranma dodged the attack by bending his body around the slash, then avoiding the follow-up thrust before stepping into Kuno's swing and then blocked the backslash that Kuno turned on him, a jaunty smile on his handsome features.

Kuno found his right wrist locked in the grip of his opponent and struggled to free himself, finding Ranma's other hand was thrust just under his chin, lightly touching the Adam's apple, which implied that he had just scored a technical point and could have inflicted real damage if he had so intended. To his amazement the arrogant boy released him and stood away, smiling all the while at Kuno as if this were a friendly match and not a deadly encounter by his own estimation.

"Not too bad," Ranma said, "But you commit too much into your swing and don't do enough for your defenses. You're pretty wide open to a counter-attack and-  
HEY!" he protested as he dodged another swing by Kuno.

"Stand still, you Cur!" Kuno snarled as he tried again to nail his opponent, to no avail as this Ranma was proving as difficult to strike as a phantom, "Let the righteous hand of Kuno Tatewaki smite you!"

"Yeah, right," Ranma ducked low under a slash, thrust a hand out into the ground and jack-knifed his body into a razor kick that partially stunned Kuno while managing to disarm him of his weapon, "See?" I told ya you were wide open...OH RATS!"

"Huh?" Akane had been watching the match with astonishment, seeing Kuno move faster and strike harder than he had ever done against her, and the ease with which Ranma avoided his assaults, but now she became aware of a falling moisture on her face and looked up in time to see the rain begin to fall in earnest, to which she went, "Uh oh..."

"Why is this happening to me?" Ranma's voice went up in pitch as his hair turned red and he diminished in size by a noticeably fraction. The next minute she went, "URK!" as Kuno's hands embraced her from behind.

"I fight on-I-eh? What the...?" it was almost comical to watch the way that Tatewaki's expression went through the gamut of emotions as his hands closed upon the bulging chest area of his transformed opponent.

Ranma-chan went almost instantly from shock and dismay to complete anger as she felt herself being fondled like a ripe fruit, and with a surge of angry intensity she broke loose from her assailant's arms and rounded on him with a massive uppercut that caught Kuno on the chin and knocked him for a loop, right into unconsciousness. She then grimaced as she glanced down at herself and growled, "Geez...he didn't have to squeeze me so hard...!"

"Come on!" Akane grabbed the redhead by the arm and pulled her away from the yard, deciding to avoid the front entrance as the laundry room would afford more privacy for switching Ranma back to his proper sex.

As they left the yard there was much milling about from the windows overhead, and an equal amount of confusion over what everyone thought they had seen of the fight between Kuno and a total stranger who one moment looked like some incredibly cute guy, and the next appeared more like an equally cute redhead.

"Did you see that?" Ryonami asked of Numa.

"Sempai ought to know about this," Numa replied before looking around and saying, "Where is Sempai?"

"Maybe she's not feeling well," Ryonami replied, "But we owe it to her to find out what we can about this guy, so we can find out what odds to place against him when Kuno is feeling better."

"Right," Numa agreed, sharing a look of satisfaction, "She'll be sorry she missed seeing him take Kuno down, but Sempai would expect us to keep up the bookings just like she was here. I wonder who he is though?"

"I'll bet Akane knows," Ryonami smiled with a confident look of calculation, "And if she does, then you can bet so does Sempai..."

"I still say that moron didn't have to grab me like that," Ranma growled in the present as he rubbed a slight bruise on his neck he didn't even remember receiving from Kuno, "What was he thinking pawing me like that anyway?"

"That's Kuno for you," Akane smiled, "He never knows when to quit or when enough is too much, but...well...now you see what I have to go through every day..."

"Every...day?" Ranma reacted with a start.

"That's right," Akane said, "Ever since Kuno made that stupid declaration that the only boy who would be worthy to date me had to be one strong enough to defeat me in combat..."

"He said that?" Ranma blinked, "What a moron!"

"I know," Akane replied, "And every day since he made that stupid statement in a public forum I've had to fight practically every boy in our school just to get to class in the morning...followed immediately by Kuno, only...somehow I always wind up beating him..."

"Oh...well, that part kind of makes sense," Ranma replied.

"It does?" Akane blinked, "How?"

"Well," he explained, "When a guy fights a girl, sometimes he...lets them win."

"But not you, huh?" Akane frowned.

"I don't like to lose," Ranma replied, "I ain't been trained to lose, that why I never do."

"Well, I'm not used to losing either!" Akane glared at him, "Wanna try me for real this time?"

"No thanks," Ranma said smugly, "You'd only lose, even if I accepted, which I don't."

"Hey," Akane insisted, "Don't underestimate me just because I'm a girl."

"Maybe for a girl you're all right," Ranma said, "But I won't fight you like that. I don't fight girls..."

"Yeah?" Akane smiled, putting down one of her pails and readying the other with both hands, "Well, what about when you are a girl?"

"Hey!" Ranma backed away, "Don't do that! We're still in school, for crying out loud!"

"So you admit I can still get the better of you, huh?" Akane grinned.

"By surprise you mean-OKAY-I admit it already!" Ranma declared as Akane readied to splash him.

"Good," Akane lowered her weapon, "You just keep that in mind some time...you've got a weakness I can exploit, so don't be so cocky."

"Sheesh, are you always this uncute or what?" Ranma glared.

"Uncute?" Akane blinked her eyes then readied her pail again, "Are you asking to see which of us is cute here, Saotome?"

"Uh...no...that's all right!" Ranma made a placating gesture, "I don't need any lessons there, thanks..."

"Good," Akane resumed her vigil, "Then why don't we talk about Nabiki instead?"

"Uh...Nabiki?" Ranma winced a little.

"Yes," Akane smiled, "She likes you, I can tell...and for Nabiki that's pretty unusual."

"She...does?" Ranma asked uncertainly, "How can you be sure?"

"Because I've never seen her get so worked up over a guy before," Akane explained, "She doesn't like to show a lot of emotion, so you have to look close to notice anything on the surface. I don't know what you did, but it got to her, and now she's probably thinking about you even if she says she isn't."

"Ah...well..." Ranma struggled for words and found his ability to come back with snappy lines was momentarily derailed by that statement, but discontentment caused him to grouse, "She sure has a funny way of showing it..."

"Hey, don't be like that," Akane urged, "You can't let Nabiki put you off like she does everyone else. She doesn't always say what she means, and she can be really defensive about showing her feelings."

"So why do you care?" Ranma asked with a noncommittal expression of his own.

"Because I think it's great that you two got together," Akane said with a sidelong expression, "Nabiki really needs somebody in her life who can shake her out of her obsession with making money and scamming the other students. She says she's doing it to earn money for the house, but I think she really just does it because she's lonely and doesn't have any other way of reaching out to other people."

"Huh?" Ranma said, "Why is that?"

"Because it gives her an edge and makes her feel important, I guess," Akane shrugged, "It means that people have to keep out of her way, that she doesn't need to fear them, or something like that anyway. I'm no psychologist, I just know my sister deep down isn't really all that bad of a person."

"So why does she feel like she's gotta be defensive and stuff?" Ranma asked, "How come she isn't more like you, practicing the martial arts?

"Nabiki...isn't a very physical person, I'm afraid," Akane replied, "She works out mostly to stay in shape, but...well...she stopped practicing with me a long time ago, when we were still kids mainly...about the same time Dad stopped teaching..."

"He did?" Ranma asked in genuine curiosity, "Why's that?"

"It's...kind of a long story," Akane glanced down, "Let's just say...a long time ago something happened...and it changed everything about my family. Nabiki...kind of just withdrew into her shell and she's never come back out. I think she's afraid of getting hurt, so she tells everyone that she doesn't need to have friends...and I think she even believes it..."

Ranma stared down at the floor and said, "If she really wants friends...she has a funny way of asking..."

"Hey, don't be like that," Akane gave him a wry look, "Has she asked you yet for any money?"

"Huh?" Ranma blinked, "No...why would she?"

"You'll find out," Akane rocked back on her heels and smiled to herself like one enjoying a secret, "Let's just say that the fact that she hasn't means she thinks more of you than just another guy she can scam for all he's worth...like Kuno."

"Kuno?" Ranma's eyes narrowed, "What's she got to do with that loser?"

"Aside from the fact that he's rich and easy to con?" Akane grinned, "You figure it out, Saotome."

"You make her sound like some kind of mercenary or..." Ranma hesitated, not wanting to say a word that even he only half-understood the meaning of.

"She's not that desperate for money," Akane glared back at him, "She may trade anything else, but even she's not that Hentai."

Ranma just glared back at the raven haired girl at his side, but before he could say something about uncute Tomboys someone else inside the classroom called out, "Hey, did you hear that guys? Nabiki's got herself a boyfriend!"

"Huh?" Ranma was startled to hear a commotion breaking out behind them as students crowded in the doorway and window all looking at him like he had just come from some other planet.

"Uh oh..." Akane remarked, sensing the beginning of real trouble...

"Oh...my head..." Tatewaki said as he started to regain consciousness, "What wondrous flights of angels do I hear bearing me to my place in the heavens...?"

"Sorry to disappoint you, Kuno-chan," the familiar voice of Nabiki responded, "But you're still very much a part of this world...you just can't see because I put a towel over your head to help reduce the swelling."

Tatewaki reached up and remarked, "So you did," he pulled the towel away and stared at the short haired girl with a much vexed expression, "What became of my foe...and how did I arrive here? That...woman...I felt...one moment I thought I had my foe within my hands...the next...it was some fair pigtailed goddess..."

"Goddess huh?" Nabiki gave a faint hint of amusement, "Well, I hate to break it to you, Kuno-chan, but you lost your fight with Saotome Ranma."

"Lost?" Kuno sat bolt upright, "I do no lose my battles, Woman! I am the great Kuno Tatewaki, the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High School..."

"I thought you were calling yourself something else this week?" Nabiki said, then dismissed the point by saying, "You lost...I've got witnesses who will testify to that..."

"Lies, slanders, I will not hear such outrageous distortions!" Kuno thundered.

"Not even when I tell you how you lost?" Nabiki curled the words with a faintly sweet smile, having formulated her plans while the tall boy was unconscious.

"What say you, Woman?" Kuno frowned, "Speak up! What do you know of the churl who dared cross swords with Kuno Tatewaki?"

"I know that he's from out of town, a martial artist who was trained by his father, and that he's recently been to China," Nabiki hinted sweetly, "How much will you pay to hear the rest?"

Kuno fumed, but long experience told him it was folly to haggle with Nabiki over money, "How do you want for your information, Tendo Nabiki?"

She stretched out her palm and said, "Two thousand yen will do for a start."

"Two thousand yen?" Tatewaki reared back, but one look in Nabiki's eyes and he relented, pulling out his wallet and giving her what she asked for, "There is your filthy lucre, now...tell me what I want to know!"

"Very well," Nabiki neatly folded the bills and slipped them down her dress, "Saotome Ranma is staying at my place."

"WHAT?" Kuno reared back as if he had been slapped, "Under your roof...the same roof as your sister, the fair Akane?"

"Yeah, but don't worry," Nabiki reassured, "There's nothing going on between them...at least not yet."

"What do you mean 'Not yet?'" Tatewaki's eyes narrowed, "What is that-that low born CUR doing in your house?"

"Oh, didn't you know?" Nabiki smiled sweetly, "His father's an old school chum of my daddy. They studied the same system and everything, in fact they're almost as tight as brothers."

"As...brothers?" Kuno blinked as he absorbed this.

"Hmmm...but that's not all," Nabiki paused, curling one lip as she hesitated before revealing the half-truth that she had cooked up to confuse him, "There's someone else staying at our place...a girl..."

"A...girl?" Kuno blinked again, his brain dangerously close to overloading on the new information.

"Her name is...um...Saotome Ranko," Nabiki lied, "She's Ranma's twin sister...in fact, you could say they're almost inseparable, joined at the hip and all that..."

"I...see..." Kuno replied in a calmer tone of voice, "So...that woman I grasped within my hands..."

"That was Ranko," Nabiki nodded, "And my guess is she didn't like it when you grabbed her."

"Indeed, forsooth, I dare say that she did protest at being handled," Tatewaki slowly reflected, "Had I but known...but I was so much blinded by my righteous rage that I did mistake her for her brother. In truth, had I not been confused at the discovery, I would have handled the matter more delicately...as it was I left my guard down and no doubt her brother-coward that he was-took advantage of my momentary distraction..."

"Ah...whatever," Nabiki could only shake her head at the latest example of Tatewaki's legendary powers of self-delusion, "The thing is...I'd stay well away from both of them if I were you. Ranma's clearly a better fighter than you, and he's pretty sensitive and protective about his sister, so I wouldn't mention her if I were you..."

"And who says you are me?" Tatewaki bristled, "And who dares claim that he is my better at arms? I will face this dog again and prove that I am his Master! Just name the time and place, Woman, and I will meet him in battle at any place of his choosing."

"You don't say?" Nabiki hid her smile as she added, "I...think I can arrange for you two to have it out in a formal setting...provided you make it worth my while, Kuno-chan."

Tatewaki scowled, "What do you want, Tendo Nabiki?"

At last she allowed her smile to show in its full predatory gleam, knowing her hook had been well baited with little barbs meant to prick Tatewaki's ego. She wanted to use the boy to test how good her new fianc really was, and since Ranma had defeated him so handily the first time, there was a good chance that she could make a little money on the side, provided she played her cards just right in setting thing up for the big impending battle.

(Just you wait, Saotome Ranma,) she silently mused to herself, (No one makes a fool of Tendo Nabiki...no one).

The little twinge in what passed for her conscience registered a slight protest at this declaration, but out of long habit she managed to ignore it. After all, it really was a pathetically small thing, that part of her mind which would normally caution her against "improper" behavior, though-oddly enough-the voice in her head sounded surprisingly a lot like Kasumi, the only person Nabiki dreaded displeasing more than she liked to feel an empty wallet. She consoled herself by mentally saying that this was nothing less than what was needed to determine the worth of the man that her father thought she should marry.

Even if she could tell that for herself at a glance, though the rebellious part of her mind that said this was also notably tiny, and just as easy to file away into the background...

Just then Ryonami came bursting into the infirmary with a big grin on her face and in a rush asked, "Sempai! Is it true that you're going to get married?"

"NANI?" both Nabiki and Tatewaki cried together, he in dismay upon hearing this news flash, she upon finding out that her big secret had just broken out over the whole campus...

"Well, Boy?" Genma asked as he and Ranma stood upon their heads, "What do you think so far of your iinazuke?"

"She's not my iinazuke, Pop," Ranma growled, "She's not my anything, so just drop it already."

"Now Son," Genma chided gruffly, "She may be a little high spirited, but that can be a good thing in a woman."

"If you think she's so great, why don't you marry her?" Ranma blurted out before silently fuming.

"Did something happen between you two today, Boy?" Genma frowned.

"I don't wanna talk about it," Ranma growled, "Just drop it already."

"Ranma," Genma rumbled ominously, "Did you do something to upset your fianc e?"

"She's not my fianc e, and I didn't do nothing!" Ranma protested, "It's just...she took something the wrong way...it kinda got out and...well..."

"You mean your engagement is no longer a secret?" Genma sighed, then righted himself and stood over the still inverted Ranma, "Is that why you're moping around here like a whipped puppy?"

"HEY!" Ranma angrily reacted, "I ain't like that!"

"Oh no?" Genma frowned, "The shame of it all...my son not only turns into a girl, he cries like one too!"

"What?" Ranma pushed up off the floor and righted himself, then fell into a fighting crouch and snarled, "You take that back or you're history, Pop!"

"I didn't raise you to be whipped little sniveling coward, Son," Genma declared without backing down in the slightest, "A real man would be going up there to apologize to his iinazuke..."

"APOLOGIZE?" Ranma blurted out, "For what?"

"For letting her be upset about anything," Genma calmly noted, "Women aren't like us, Boy, they're not logical about things, they get upset easily enough, and it doesn't have to be all your fault, but if you make them cry..."

"Cry?" the word caused Ranma to downcheck his anger level by a fraction.

"Ranma," Genma replied, "When a woman gets upset with you, the only thing you can do is to try and make it up to them. You won't be admitting to any fault, it doesn't even have to be about you, but if you don't go up there and apologize to Nabiki right now it will only be worse for you later. A real man doesn't wait to tell a woman that he's sorry if she's upset over nothing. Believe me, if you don't put a stop to this now then it will be like leaving the door open to worse troubles later, and then they pull out sharp objects and threaten you with them and..."

"Huh?" Ranma blinked, "Pop, what are you talking about?"

"Huh?" Genma blinked as if belatedly remembering what he had just been saying, and almost at once he shifted moods again and said, "Oh...nothing...forget that last part...doesn't mean a thing, nosiree! Not a thing at all...not even in the slightest..."

Ranma eyed his father dubiously as if suspecting that the old Panda-breath had finally lost it, but aloud he said, "Well...won't saying I'm sorry mean that I'm admitting I did something wrong?"

"Won't matter if you're innocent or not, Son," Genma replied, "It never does...just...believe me when I say that it's better to keep them happy."

"Uh...well..." Ranma thought about it then said, "I...guess I can go check and see how she is..."

"That's the spirit, Boy," Genma clapped him on the shoulder, "Now...move along and go see Nabiki...I'm sure the two of you can work it out together, if you just give it a chance."

Ranma's shoulders sagged slightly, but he growled half-heartedly, "Well...okay...but I still ain't calling her my iinazuke."

"Call her whatever you like, Boy," Genma nodded as he watched his son trudge away in a dispirited sulk, "Just don't say it to her face unless you want to face the consequences..."

"...So, what's really upsetting you, Nabiki?" Akane asked as she did her homework while her sister did leg-lifts on the bed, "The fact that everybody now knows that you're engaged to Ranma?"

"No," Nabiki growled back as she kept up an even rhythm with her upward kicks, being careful not to further the bruise on her ankle, "I could have managed that part if the two of you hadn't blabbed it around in front of everyone without consulting with me. Now everybody thinks I'm hung up over some...guy," she sulked in displeasure.

"Well?" Akane asked with a suggestive smirk, "Aren't you?"

"Puh-lease!" Nabiki insisted, stabbing one shapely leg up at the ceiling, "What do I look like to you, some lovesick little girl? He's just a guy, I've barely even known him for more than one whole day..."

"That's true," Akane eyed her sister with a slightly superior air as she added, "He's just a guy who tried to stand up for you when people started calling you heartless."

"He...what?" Nabiki paused with the toes of one well-arched foot pointed accusingly towards the heavens.

"That's right," Akane chimed, "You should have heard the stuff the guys in our class were calling you...things like 'Money-Grubbing Witch' and "Female Shylock,' and other stuff like that. Only the more they said things like that about you, the madder Ranma got until he told them all to go take a hike, that it wasn't any of their business what you are, and that he wasn't going to stand for hearing them call you names behind your back."

"He said that?" Nabiki blinked, "No way!"

"Well, you didn't exactly respond in kind, did you?" Akane persisted, "Telling him you didn't want his help getting home, accusing him about bragging to the whole school about your engagement...and don't say you're not engaged, okay? This is me, Sis, I saw you blush when he actually paid you a compliment."

"You call that a compliment?" Nabiki frowned, "He called me a heartless mercenary!"

"After you told him that you'd set up another match between him and Kuno," Akane tapped her pencil on her desk, "But that wasn't the part I mean...it was when you were approaching us and he didn't even see you coming. Somebody was comparing you to me, remember? And do you remember what he said?"

"Ah..." Nabiki thought about it, and abruptly she colored...

"What are you talking about, are you crazy?" Ranma declared as he rounded on one student, "No way is Akane cuter than Nabiki! What makes you guys think an uncute Tomboy like this is better looking than a real girl?"

Nabiki-who had been approaching Ranma from behind with an angry glare, intent on chewing out the boy she believed had been bragginng about their engagement to the teeming crowd of his fellow students-came to an abrupt half upon hearing that pronouncement, looking slightly stunned at hearing herself favorably compared to Akane, though only Akane herself was in a position to fully see her reaction...

"...Well..." Nabiki searched for the right words to summarize her thoughts on that particular subject.

"The guy stood up for you, even if he was insulting me when he did it," Akane said crossly, "He said he thought you were better looking than me, not that I care one bit what that arrogant Hentai thinks about me, just as long as he isn't my problem."

Nabiki narrowed her eyes and said, "Methinks thou dost protest too much, Little Sister."

"Huh?" Akane blinked, "What is that supposed to mean?"

"On, nothing," Nabiki rolled back on her shoulders, propping her arms underneath her as she did a head stand while doing the splits with both of her legs, "I've probably been spending too much time around Kuno...pay it no mind..."

"You're weird, Sis," Akane said drolly, then added, "So...what about the guy don't you like? I mean, he's arrogant, full of himself, thinks he's the greatest thing since sliced bread, and-to top it off-he turns into a girl of all things..."

"You think there's something wrong about him turning into a girl?" Nabiki countered.

"I don't know," Akane shrugged, "I mean...the idea that magic curses are real and all that...of course it freaked me out the first couple of times I saw him change, but now...well...I think it's kind of neat."

"So do I," Nabiki softly murmured.

"What was that?" Akane arched an eyebrow.

"Ah...I said I think it's not so bad that he turns into a girl," Nabiki replied, "And you're right about him being full of himself, thinks he's the world's best martial artist and all that...but..."

"Okay, spill it out," Akane sighed, "What else have you got against him?"

"Well..." Nabiki frowned as she folded her legs up and slowly rolled into an upright position...

Ranma felt an uncomfortable roiling in his stomach as he approached the bedroom door that had a wooden duck that spelled out the name "Nabiki." He was not-he sternly told himself-coming to her room in order to apologize...he had nothing to be sorry about. That mess at school was definitely not his doing, nor did he owe her an explanation...it was just...

...It was just...he remembered the angry way she had shouted at him before storming off earlier in the day, accusing him of bragging about their engagement...as if he wanted to tell people what their fathers had arranged behind their back! He still stung under the earlier accusation that he had deliberately sought her out in order to woo her, as if he'd even known what she would look like prior to their meeting! It was all Pop's fault for springing it on them so suddenly like that, and just when he and Nabiki were starting to act friendly around each other...

"Oh man," he winced, pausing at her door and preparing to knock, only to hear voices coming from the next room over, the one that had a wooden duck with the name "Akane" written in English. As he listened in he thought he heard Nabiki's voice, and that she was saying something like: "...The guy is as poor as dirt, he's practically a hermit! I've seen charity cases that were better off than him, so what makes you think I've got anything to gain from being around him?"

"Huh?" Ranma blinked, knowing implicitly that he was the one being referred to in such a depreciating manner.

"So why did you hang around with him the other day if you think he's such a money pit?" Akane asked in response to this statement.

"I...I don't know," Nabiki sounded more than slightly defensive on this point, "He just seemed like a really nice guy...offering to carry me home and all that..."

"But you like him even if he doesn't have any money, right?"

"I...I don't really know anything about him...it's just too weird, us meeting like that, and he pretends like it was an accident..."

"So what if it was an accident? Nabiki...are you honestly saying that you think this guy is smart enough to think up a plan that complicated? You ask me, he didn't seem that subtle."

"So, when did you become an expert about boys?"

"You know what I'm saying. You're just trying to think up reasons not to like the guy, but he did something that got to you. I've never seen you get this worked up over a boy, not since that time Kennosuke beat you out for that two hundred yen piece..."

"You're being ridiculous, and when did you turn into my older sister?"

"Stop denying the facts and just admit that you like the guy!"

"I'm not admitting any such thing, and if you think he's so great, why don't you marry him?"

"He's not my type, and I won't poach on your territory, Sis."

"Oh, that's right...silly me, I forgot, you still have that silly crush on Doctor Tofu..."

"You take that back! And it's not silly...besides...you know Tofu-Sensei doesn't even know I exist, not with...Kasumi around..."

"All right, truce...I'm sorry I said that, Akane-chan, I'm just...having a little trouble right now adjusting to the idea that I've become engaged to my own worst nightmare..."

"Huh?" Ranma blinked, then scowled, "Okay, if that's the way she feels..."

"Worst nightmare? Sis, you don't mean that..."

"I do too mean it, every bit of it, Akane!" Nabiki insisted, "He's my exact opposite...all brawn and very little brains, and he's so sure of himself about everything he does...it's like he's some kind of character out of an Anime, like those mysterious strangers that girls like me are supposed to fall all over and swoon at their feet..."

Ranma did not wait to hear the rest as he vaulted over the railing, thinking to himself, "And I was going to apologize to that...?"

"Well?" Akane said patiently, "Are you trying to tell me you're not swooning over him right now?"

Nabiki looked away, feeling more than slightly trapped on the subject, "Leave me alone, Sis...I'd rather work this out on my own..."

"OH!" cried a startled voice from just outside their door, startling both sisters as they recognized it instantly as belonging to their older sibling.

"Kasumi!" Akane got out of her chair even as Nabiki was on her feet and moving to the door, then both girls were at the railing looking down the stairs, where a most unusual sight greeted their astonished eyes.

Ranma stood there holding Kasumi, who had nearly fallen backwards when surprised by his sudden appearance at the top of the stairs. Ranma had managed to rescue her, but the position in which he now held the older girl was more than slightly incriminating in the eyes of her two younger sisters, both of whom were eyeing the scene with less-than-pleased expressions.

"Casanova," Akane growled, thinking that the boy had made a play for Kasumi behind Nabiki's back.

"H-Huh?" Ranma gasped as he looked up, seeing the accusing eyes turned against him, "N-No! Wait a minute! This ain't what it looks like!"

"Save it, Mister!" Nabiki snapped angrily, "I don't want to hear another word out of your mouth, in fact, I never even want to see you again, you-Pervert!"

"Nabiki!" Ranma cried as he set Kasumi upright, then vaulted back up the stairs in a single bound even as his iinazuke turned and stormed back to her room. He had almost managed to catch up to her when she slammed the door quite literally in his face, stunning him slightly and giving him a nosebleed.

Akane turned from watching Ranma stagger backwards from the impact of that encounter, then looked down at Kasumi...and only then caught sight of two other figures standing near the bottom of the stairs, and by straining her neck and glancing over the edge she discovered both of their fathers were there, hers wearing a wash basin that was partially draped over his head, Genma once again having reverted to the body of a panda, and both men holding their bathing toiletries in both hands.

"Uh oh," Akane suddenly had a sneaking suspicions that there was more to the scene than she had judged on first impression.

"Saotome-kun," her father drawled slightly.

The panda held up his ever-present sign, which read, "Yes, Tendo-kun?"

"It's back to the bath house for us both, I'm afraid," Soun drolly noted.

The panda turned his sign around and it now said, "Right."

"Bath house?" Akane looked questioningly at Kasumi.

"That's right," her older sister said, "The furo is in need of repairs...I was hoping to fetch a plumber."

"And Ranma...?" Akane asked.

"Oh, he surprised me," Kasumi replied, "I don't think he even saw me coming..."

"Aw, C'mon, Nabiki!" Ranma was pleading against the door blocking his path, "Give me a chance to explain already, will ya?"

"Go away, we don't want any!" Nabiki shot back in stubborn resolution.

"Hooboy," Akane sighed, belatedly realizing that the job of playing Cupid was not everything it was cut out to be, and that she had her work ahead of her if she were going to help these two get closer together...

Continued.

Comments/Criticisms/Anime Courtship Protocols: shadowmane

Ranma has a double-confrontation with Tatewaki while Nabiki considers ways in which to turn a profit, and Akane gives Ranma a proposition that she hopes he won't refuse while revealing to him the truth behind her own unrequited passion in: "A Taste for Roses," or "I Love You/I Hate You!" Be there!

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If you wish to check out my other works, Please check out my Fanfiction webpage at: . All related chapters of this series can be found there along with my other works. 


	4. Chapter 4

RanHearts04

The Horse and Butterfly

By Jim Robert Bader

(Inspired by the works of Rumiko Takahashi)

Part Four.

Price and Prejudice

"Here they are, the rate is one thousand yen a picture, take it or leave it."

"A thousand yen?" Kuno reacted as he stared at the pictures laying out upon the table, "The heavens would weep at such an exorbitant price! Surely you cannot set a premium on my love..."

"Does that mean you're not interested?" Nabiki asked as she prepared to gather up the five photographs taken of her sister Akane while working out in the dojo.

"SOLD!" Kuno promptly declared, beating her to the punch as he slapped down the requisite five thousand in yen notes on the table.

Nabiki smiled as she fingered the five thousand-yen notes, delighting in playing up to Kuno's notorious weakness for pictures taken of her violent younger sibling, especially when it meant that she got free food and some hard cash out of the bargain. But then she reached into her cleavage and pulled out another set of photographs, displaying them prominently like a deck of cards before saying, "By the way...you were asking me if I also had some shots of Ranko..."

The name of the perky little redhead brought an instant flash of interest in her major client, and so Nabiki displayed her major trumps, laying seven photos down on the cafe table and watching him closely for his reaction, which was not long in coming.

"Ah!" Kuno almost jumped in his seat as he pounced upon these photos, "Such beauty, such subtle grace, such a stunning profile...so shameless, so...sensual...so...uninhibited..."

"Uninhibited's a good word for her," Nabiki agreed, "Why, you'd almost think she was a boy the way she carries on sometimes..."

"What a thing of wonder is a camera to capture the image of such lovely grace in repose?" Kuno wondered, "Such a rose is fairer than the fairest of flowers...and yet such power can be contained within such a compact frame, and one with such catlike grace..."

"So, what do you say?" Nabiki asked, her smile somewhat less forced as she tried not to laugh out loud at his comical reaction, "Are they worth another thousand yen a-?"

"DONE!" Kuno slapped the money down so fast that it almost made Nabiki's hand sore, and just like that-without even haggling-he gave into her demands, scooping up the photos and all but fondling them as he held them closer to his face with a nearly drooling expression.

For some strange reason Nabiki actually felt deflated by the ease with which she had just earned seven thousand more in yen. She rather enjoyed the game of haggling over a price, even given Kuno's penchant for launching into ludicrous theatrics. She stared at the twelve thousand that she had just made, reckoning that Kasumi would now be able to pay for a plumber to come fix the furo, and with enough left over to pay the electrical bill, which meant that they could continue to have lights, all of which-she told herself sternly-justified her morally questionable behavior in taking illicit photos of both her sister and fianc , knowing that Kuno would hardly be the wiser for the transaction.

The idea of selling the pictures had come to her rather abruptly after hearing Kuno launching into a spiel about the injustices of the fates in allowing a "wretch" like Saotome Ranma to have such a "virtuous" sister who bore so similar a name. It seemed that he was developing quite the crush over his little "Pigtailed Goddess" after their second encounter that very day in the open schoolyard...

It had been agreed that after classes Ranma would face off against Kuno to continue their earlier bout from the previous day, and it had seemed like a fine time for a match between two such capable martial artists. There were no troubling clouds in the sky threatening rain and nearly all their fellow students were in attendance, placing down bets to see which boy would emerge triumphant. Nabiki and her regulars had been busy circulating among those eager attendants taking down wagers and setting the odds as two-to-one against Ranma. Quite a few had heard about Kuno's knockout from the rumor mill circulating around Furinkan, and some just wanted to see Kuno get the stuffings knocked out of him, though most were betting against the new boy. Many other had heard about the mysterious "redhead" who had shown up somewhere during the fight and wondered if she had been the cause of Kuno "distraction" (or so he called it, a convenient excuse for him to lay claim that he had not truly been bested by Ranma). On the whole it was looking like a very good day for making a profit off the sudden rivalry that had sprung up between the Kendoist and self-  
professed practitioner of "Anything Goes" style Kempo.

Only one person did not share Nabiki's enthusiasm for this aspect of the match, Akane herself, who gave Nabiki a withering stare and asked, "Have you no shame, Oneesan? Why are you trying to make money off your own iinazuke?"

"He's not my iinazuke, you got that?" Nabiki had rebuffed, "And besides...he's a bottomless pit, an eating machine! You saw how he and his Dad ate up all that extra rice Kasumi prepared? That stuff costs money, you know..."

"That's not the point and you know it," Akane had persisted, "You ought to be ashamed of yourself for taking advantage of him like this. Don't you know the guy would do anything you asked to get back on your good side?"

"I don't know anything of the kind," Nabiki had declared (just a little too hastily for her own liking), "And besides, we need to get a plumber in to fix the hot water. Ranma and his Dad are costing us a fortune just in hot baths alone, so it's only fitting that he does something to pay us back for the inconvenience."

"Inconvenience?" Akane had retorted, "They're our guests, Oneesan...it's disrespectful to make them pay for anything. Do you want to make Dad angry at you? You're bringing shame on all of our house doing this to the guy, and he's practically your boyfriend..."

"Don't call him that!" Nabiki snapped, "I never asked to be engaged to the creep, and besides, he's a two-timing, back-stabbing..."

"He's not like that at all," Akane had insisted, "Oneechan said it was an accident...you believe Kasumi, don't you...?"

"An accident," Nabiki huffed aloud, feeling a tightening in her guts as she remembered seeing Ranma the previous evening with his arms around her older sister while the two of them stood facing each other on the stairs...

"I beg your pardon?" Kuno looked at her a bit oddly.

"Oh, nothing," Nabiki hastily put the money away back in the same place where she had stored her photos, then pulled out her infamous ledger and smiled like a piranna, "Oh, by the way, Kuno-chan, you owe me another five thousand yen for losing that match against Saotome Ranma."

"I dare dispute this!" Kuno said pompously, "I did not lose to that miscreant, I...merely slipped when my mind wandered...I was besotted by Cupid's love arrows...and besides, you declared it a draw..."

"I did that for the sake of the other students," Nabiki said, "But we both know you took a fall within the first ten seconds of the match, Kuno-baby."

"And you would dare hold that against me, Woman?" Kuno growled.

Nabiki tapped her pen against her ledger in mild irritation, "Does this mean that the Great Kuno Tatewaki wants to be known as someone who doesn't honor his bets?"

His eyes narrowed as he stared at her, "You would not dare, Woman."

"Try me."

His glare was wasted as he tried to match stares against her, and in the end he wavered them capitulated, "Very well...but mark my words, Tendo Nabiki...some day your avaricious ways will come back to haunt you. Your love of money will betray you in the end, and on that day you will know the sorrow you have so callously inflicted upon others."

"Yeah, right," Nabiki said dismissively as she accepted another five thousand from Kuno, hiding her smile as she considered this just compensation for the upset victory Ranma had caused earlier in the day, which had cheated Nabiki from the real killing that she had been after...

The match had started out well enough as the two opponents had faced each other in the Soccer field at Furinkan, and once Kuno had finished with his posturing and self-important speeches the fight had gotten to a pretty good start with Kuno launching his attack, only to find his unarmed foe was not where he had expected. A few rapid clashes and kicks later, Ranma had put Kuno temporarily down and seemed on the verge of a stunning triumph, astonishing the onlookers, who not suspected him of being so fast, so strong and so damned good at unarmed fighting.

But then disaster struck as the sprinkler system had inexplicably come on line, catching Ranma by surprise while Kuno was struggling to get back on his feet. With the entire school watching it was a certainty that his secret would be revealed to one and all on the campus, but Akane-surprisingly enough-had proven quicker witted than Nabiki would have normally given credit, snatching up a blanket that she had brought with her (for reasons that still baffled Nabiki) and threw it over Ranma just as he started to transform into his redheaded female half. She then hustled him from the field while everyone was milling about in confusion, obviously intending to get Ranma to some hot water before anyone was the wiser. Nabiki, finding herself standing alone on the field, and facing potentially angry creditors, reluctantly followed.

Unfortunately Kuno has recovered what passed for his wits right there and then and gave chase to his errant foeman, catching up with Ranma and Akane mid-way to the gymnasium showers. Ranma had been forced to fight him off in his female half, but once Kuno had gotten a good look at her he stiffened up and just stared at her in amazement.

"You!" he had declared, "You are...Saotome Ranko?"

"Ranko?" Ranma had blinked in surprise, then turned and gave Akane a curious look, "Do you know anything about this?"

"Not a clue," Akane shook her head, then turned and asked, "What about you, Nabiki? You got any idea what he's talking about?"

"Ah..." Nabiki had said, finding herself suddenly on the spot for some reason.

That was when many of their classmates caught up with the contenders, and many expressed surprise and confusion at finding some strange girl wearing Ranma's Chinese clothing, but they did not have long to spend asking for an explanation when Kuno had surprised everyone by saying, "Oh fair one...where has gone thy arrogant brother in this time of manly challenge?"

"Huh?" Ranma had asked, obviously not catching on to what was being implied by Kuno's statement.

"That dog has fled this field, this must is obvious," Kuno growled, "Forgive my saying this, beauteous one, but your brother is a coward and a cad to ask you to fight in his place..."

"What?" Ranma blinked, "Now wait a minute...!'

"He is no man!" Kuno had continued, "That boy is no true man! Only a man would stay and face his just thrashing at the righteous hand of Kuno Tatewaki..."

That was as much taunting as Ranma could stand, and with a snarl she balled her fists and cried, "You take that back right now! No one calls Saotome Ranma a coward!"

"You wish to fight me?" Kuno readied his boken, "Very well, if you defeat me then you can date me, but be warned...I am prepared to lose."

"Who says I want to date you?" Ranma charged forward, meeting the downward slash of Kuno's blade by vaulting high and landing atop it, and then with an incredible display of balance she balanced on tip-toes over the blade while Kuno gaped in disbelief. One second later he saw the flat end of her foot connect with his chin and Kuno went sailing backwards, even as Ranma vaulted high and performed a double-kick before landing on the ground, then spinning Kuno's sword up into her hand with another kick and balancing it against her shoulder, looking down in contempt at the twitching, semi-conscious body of her defeated opponent.

"And guess what, Kuno," she sniffed, "Saotome Ranma's even better than me."

That had effectively ended the encounter, but not the match itself in the eyes of its principle contenders. Nabiki had suffered a loss herself by having to cancel out all bets due to the match having been ended in such a confusing manner. Ranma would have won, but he had disappeared, and no one had been betting on the redhead to take over the fight for him, so Kuno's defeat became a draw...hardly satisfying as Nabiki had been expecting to reap in a small fortune.

And now that the secret of Ranma's superiority to Kuno had been revealed there was little chance for her to arrange for another rematch. No one would have been foolish enough to bet on Kuno now...the former champion of their school had just become Class Chump overnight, and though Ranma's vanishing act remained a subject of some contention, there was no doubt at all that he would have walked all over Kuno had it not been for the inexplicable way that the sprinkler systems had driven him off, adding mystery to his growing legend...

Nabiki felt an inexplicable anger come over her as she put away the extra money that she had just taken, not even enjoying the thought of counting it out as she thought about the lame excuses that she had been forced to make to Ryonami and Numa over why her own fianc had turned up AWOL during a match where he had been a sure win. She also bristled a bit over Akane's lecturing tone of "I told you so," and that stinging look Ranma had given her before going off to find some hot water...

Just why that latter note should bother her as much as it did she could not put into concrete terms, almost a cross between angry and hurtful with just a hint of a "whipped puppy" staring through at the girl who had been willing to take money in a bet over his abilities as a fighter.

As if it was any of his business how she made her money. Nabiki decided to wrap up negotiations and leave, but before she could get up out of her seat Kuno surprised her once again by laying out a bouquet of red roses on the table before her.

Nabiki just stared in disbelief, wondering for a moment if Kuno was about to make a pass at her, but when she asked, "What's this?" he disabused her of that notion.

"It is for Saotome Ranko," he replied, "I wish to give them to her, and I would pay you to be my messenger of love, asking her to come meet with me so that I may explain myself to her satisfaction."

"You're giving roses...to Ranko?" all of a sudden Nabiki felt like bursting out laughing, but she stifled the impulse, her lips twitching slightly as she fought to maintain control. Instead her eyes sparkled with amusement as she asked, "How much will you pay me?"

"Two thousand yen," he said at once.

"Make it three thousand," Nabiki counter-proposed, "And I'll even throw in a love note."

"DONE!" Kuno leapt at the offer, reaching into his hakama to pull out an antique ink kit and a sheaf of regular paper.

Minutes later they exited the restaurant together, intending to go their separate ways with the conclusion of their business, and Nabiki twenty-five hundred yen the better for the matter...

But then she came to an abrupt halt, for there was Saotome Ranma facing her on the sidewalk, his expression accusatory, hurt and angry. For several long seconds no words were exchanged between them, but then Kuno himself broke the impasse by asking, "What do you want here, Saotome Ranma?"

Ranma ignored Kuno and kept his focus on Nabiki, "I can't believe it...even when Akane told me you were going to meet somebody, I never figured it would be him."

"Huh?" Nabiki blinked her eyes then said, "Not that it's any of your beeswax, but what makes you think there's anything between me and Kuno-chan?"

"What's that in your hands," Ranma nodded to the roses she carried.

"AWP!" Nabiki belatedly realized what she was holding and promptly hid it behind her back before fuming, "It's not for me, it's for Ranko!"

"Ranko?" Ranma blinked, "Why are you giving roses to...Ranko," he winced slightly, glancing past her at the fuming Kuno.

"And what business is it of yours, Ranma?" Nabiki asked in tones that she had meant to sound a lot sterner and less defensive.

"Obviously none of my business," Ranma said, "But...I thought you were better than this. How could you?"

Nabiki flinched at the way he said this, as if she truly had betrayed an unspoken trust between them, but again it was Kuno who responded instead of her, "And who are you to make demands of a lady, you enemy of women!"

"I told you to butt out of this," Ranma growled, "This is just between me and Nabiki..."

"Your insolence will not be tolerated any longer!" Kuno cried as he pulled out his boken, "Defend yourself, Churl!"

"Kuno-chan, stay out of this!" Nabiki ordered, but the tall boy was too enraged to listen, and so he came at Ranma with a lunge, only to fall flat on his face as his foot trip against Nabiki's...the good leg she thrust out in the way of his path, causing the boy to fall face-first into the pavement.

"Sheesh, he's sure not a light one on his feet," Ranma dryly noted.

"He's just being a pompous ass, but I think he means well," Nabiki countered.

"So why do you call him Kuno-chan all the time?" Ranma asked suspiciously, "Do you like him?"

"Awk!" Nabiki reacted, "That's none of your business! And what do you care anyway?"

"Maybe I don't care," Ranma replied, "But I can't see why a cute girl like you would waste her time on such an obvious loser."

"W-what did you just call me?" Nabiki blinked.

"I said you were cute, is that a problem?" Ranma asked with a sniff.

"Y-You take that back!" Nabiki wondered why she was suddenly so flustered at being complimented.

"And what if I don't want to?" Ranma countered, "Are you gonna mad and belt me like your little sister?"

"I do not get mad at people, I get even," Nabiki insisted, "And anyway, it really isn't any of your business..."

"I do not accept surrender," Kuno softly growled as he used his bokken to pry himself back onto this feet.

"Oh man, can't you take a hint?" Ranma frowned, "What do I have to do, knock you into a coma?"

"Wouldn't work anyway," Nabiki dryly noted, "You need a brain to be knocked unconscious."

"Now then," Kuno made sure he was no where near to Nabiki as he raised his boken again and prepared to strike, "Where were we? Your treacherous actions have forced me to go all out...such a wretch as you is unfit for the company of civilized mortals...you are to be dispatched with alacrity as befits a dog of your lowly station!"

"Hey, it's your funeral, Man," Ranma shrugged, "But if it makes you happy..."

Kuno lunged at Ranma with a rapid-fire series of slashes and thrusts, all of which Ranma dodged while backing away into a more open, clear space, at which point he reversed himself and counter-attacked, doing a rapid spin-kick that solidly connected with his opponent. In doing so, however, he caused the recently purchased photos to come flying out from within Kuno's hakama, briefly distracting Ranma as he caught one of the photos out of the air and stared at it in dismay, which in turn made Nabiki tense up in rueful anticipation.

"What the...?" Ranma gasped.

"An opening!" Kuno cried a he launched an assault that this time connected with Ranma's ribcage.

"Ranma!" Nabiki cried out before she could think to stifle the impulse.

"Ugh...you'll pay for that, Man," Ranma grunted as he continued snatching more and more pictures out of the air, studying them while keeping his distance from the follow-up onslaught by hurricane Kuno.

"Stand still and allow me to smite you...and give those back to me, they are mine!" Kuno cried wildly.

"Not anymore they're not," Ranma replied while going on the offensive once again with a spinning kick that went vertically up the length of Kuno's body, stretching the other boy out flat against the pavement.

"Wow," Nabiki glanced down and saw a series of foot impressions going up the length of Kuno's body, each kick striking a vital, "And I barely even saw that..."

"Make that two of us," Akane remarked as she suddenly came to stand beside Nabiki.

"Akane? Where did you come from?" Nabiki asked in surprise.

"Never mind that now," Akane hastily waved the point away, "Ranma...what is so important about those photos that you risked getting hit like that?"

"Check it out," Ranma passed them along to Akane, who blanched when she saw what they were.

"That-but-how?" she blinked then whirled around, "NABIKI!"

"Hey, a girl has to make a living somehow," Nabiki said with just a hint of defensiveness in her tone.

"A living?" Ranma complained, "You took photographs of me when I was a girl and asleep?"

"And pictures of me when I was working out and in the bathroom?" Akane declared, "How could you?"

Nabiki did not answer their charges directly, she just stood her ground and looked somewhat defiant.

"And to think I call you my sister," Akane shook her head, "You're even more of a mercenary than I thought you were."

"Is all you ever care about money?" Ranma seconded.

"It's...it's none of your business...both of you...LEAVE ME ALONE!" and with that Nabiki threw down the bouquet of roses, spun on her heels and stormed away, but not before Ranma got a good look at her eyes, which were reddened and puffy.

"Nabiki!" Akane called out, looking puzzled as she stared at the roses, but then she hurried to catch up with her sister as the older girl picked up her pace and was all but running back towards their place, "Hey, wait up! Don't go away like that..."

Ranma just stood where he was, wondering if he were imagining things...or...was it possible? Could Nabiki be...crying? But...how...?

And then he noticed something on the ground that looked like a small note book. He bent down to pick it up and saw that the name of Nabiki was embroidered on the cover.

"Huh?" Ranma said, "She keeps a diary? I wonder if..."

He opened it up but found that it was nothing like what he had expected...for one thing it was in Hiragana, not Katakana, which meant that he could not make sense of the lettering beyond a few words that he could translate, but that there were Romani letters sprinkled about along with Alphanumeric symbols that he could read...like the Yen signs followed by positive and negative signs and dollar amounts given in plus and minus columns. With a start he realized that it was some kind of accounting notebook, and that it must contain references to the amounts of money that Nabiki earned through her betting games and various other scams, which he had only begun to learn about from various sources.

But that did not entirely make sense...other than a few names of various students and lists of money taken from them, there were odd references of expenditures for items that he thought he could make out as bills of sale...some for the utilities and food, others for household items and repair costs. The more he looked the more he found other references to places where the money was being applied...and there were a lot of minus symbols given beside each reference...more minuses than plus signs...in fact, it looked on the whole like a rather uneven balance.

Among the more puzzling references that he could make out, he did see plus signs given next to something that he thought looked like the word for "Trust" next to another symbol he could barely make out. He decided he would have to examine the book at greater length, so he glanced down at the roses, then picked them up, turned and vaulted onto a nearby rooftop, leaving Kuno where he was while he tried to make sense of what this ledger might mean for his money-grubbing fianc e...and wondering if he would truly like the answer...

Sometime later Kasumi was surprised when Ranma appeared at the back window, rapping lightly on the pane to get her attention, then pointing towards the patio as though he wanted to talk with her there in private.

"Ranma-kun?" Kasumi asked as she wiped her hands off on her apron, having been interrupted in the process of making dinner, "Is something wrong?"

"Um...Kasumi..." Ranma did not know where to begin. He had barely known the older girl for more than a few days, and in truth he found himself feeling more than a little intimidated by her and the aura of almost unnatural calm that she tended to radiate, but he had to talk to someone, and she was the best, most logical choice after Akane.

"Yes?" she asked politely, sensing that that the younger boy had something important to ask.

"Kasumi...is it true your Dad doesn't teach any students in the dojo anymore?" Ranma wondered.

"Oh," she replied, "I'm afraid that's true. These days father only trains Akane...he hasn't had any other students for quite a while I'm afraid..."

"So...um..." Ranma wondered how to phrase his next question but decided to get it out with only half an effort, "What's keeping your family going? I mean...where does the money come from to pay the bills and stuff?"

"Oh, well..." Kasumi softly replied, "That's...kind of what Nabiki and I do between us. You see...father set up a trust fund some time ago and earns monthly interest on the bonds that Nabiki invested for him while our mother..." she paused before adding, "...Was still around..."

Ranma just stared at the older girl and asked, "Your mom?"

"That's right," Kasumi said with a very sad expression, "She passed on many years ago...I'm afraid it affected everyone rather badly. Nabiki does what she can to help me out with managing the finances, I really don't know what I would do without her assistance...she's very good with numbers..."

"Um...yeah..." Ranma said a bit meekly, "I...kinda found that out..."

Kasumi studied the handsome boy's expression before smiling at him and saying, "Would you come with me for a bit, Ranma-kun? I need to run a few errands, after I finish making dinner."

"Uh...well..." Ranma hesitated.

"We won't be gone long," Kasumi replied, "And I really could use an extra pair of hands to carry home groceries."

"Well...all right," Ranma reluctantly conceded.

Sometime later he found himself walking beside Kasumi as the tall and willowy girl led the way to an area of town that he had not previously visited...and with a start Ranma recognized it belatedly for what it was, "A...cemetery?"

"Yes," Kasumi replied, "We are going to visit mother. I think she would very much like the chance to meet you."

Ranma felt trapped by the implied request of the older girl, but he could think of no way of backing out of his promise to accompany her, so, before too long, he found himself standing before the graveside marker that indicated where an urn of cremated ashes were buried, a small, faded photograph before the marker next to a holder in which Kasumi laid out freshly cut flowers purchased at a local gift shop. The older girl clapped her hands together and made the sign of prayer, then indicated Ranma with a surprisingly cheerful expression.

"Mother...this is Saotome Ranma, the boy I told you about yesterday? He's Nabiki's new iinazuke. Say hello to mother, Ranma-kun."

"Um..." Ranma imitated the clapping gesture and said, "Hi...uh...how are you doing?"

"Mother is just fine, Ranma-kun," Kasumi replied, "She's looking down on us from Heaven, and I know that she must like you, because you are a very nice person."

"Uh...yeah?" Ranma asked, just a bit dubious on that particular subject.

"Mother," Kasumi turned back to the marker, "Nabiki has been very much alone for some time now, and I think it's wonderful that she's finally met someone she can like. Ranma is practicing the Saotome school of the Anything Goes Ryu, and he's quite an accomplished fighter. Akane praises his fighting ability, even if she feels that he needs a bit of work to polish his manners. Ranma-kun...Mother would be very proud to know that someone like you was looking out for Nabiki. She doesn't have too many friends at the moment, and I think she's a bit too shy about starting up a relationship. I hope you will forgive her if she does come across as a bit aloof and distant. That's just her way of maintaining her distance, but...you've opened her up to new possibilities that I don't think she's ever seen before..."

"Oh...yeah?" Ranma asked in a much subdued manner.

"Try and get along with her, please," Kasumi urged, "She may take a lot of patience, but I think you'll see that she's worth it. She's actually a very sweet girl underneath it all, she's just a bit concerned with making money..."

"Yeah," Ranma said, "And she's pretty good at it too..."

"She does what she can to help out," Kasumi sighed, "I just wish I could do more for her. Do you know that most of the clothes that are in her closet were either borrowed from me or Akane?"

"What?" Ranma blinked, "How come?"

"Because new clothing would be too expensive," Kasumi replied, "But Ranma...I want you to think about something...something very important. The next time Nabiki invites you into her room, take a good look around and see what she owns. It isn't too much, I'm afraid...she wants to be able to afford nice things, but at present she doesn't even own a CD player, and I know that she's been wanting one very badly."

"You mean..." Ranma's eyes widened in realization, "She doesn't spend that money on herself?"

"Not unless you count having enough light to read by at night, or enough hot water to fill the furo, and enough rice to put on the table..." Kasumi started to count off.

"I...think I get the point," Ranma reluctantly conceded.

"I know that you've been on the road most of your life," Kasumi replied, "But in a Japanese home it is the woman who is expected to take care of everything domestic. I do what I can because I know that it pleases Mother. She taught me everything I know about cooking, cleaning, sewing and housekeeping, but, more importantly, she taught me how to love looking after my family. I consider that my most important of all lessons."

"Is that why you don't practice the martial arts, Kasumi?" Ranma marveled.

"I do work out a little to keep in shape," Kasumi replied, "But I just don't have the time to devote myself to the art the way you and Akane do. There are so many things that needs to be done around the house, but I don't mind. I love my family, and I know that what I do is appreciated. Father has needed so much attention over the years, and Akane...well...I think you already know what a handful she can be. In fact, sometimes I feel more like she's my little brother and not just my sister..."

"Heh, she's built enough like a Tomboy," Ranma smiled, "But I guess she's all right."

"Akane and Nabiki...never had much interest in keeping house, I'm afraid," Kasumi sighed, "Akane does clean up after herself...some of the time...but she's never tried to apply herself to anything else domestic...and I'm afraid she does cost a lot in terms of all the boards and cinder blocks that she uses for practice, though Nabiki gets many of them second hand from a local construction yard..."

"In other words you keep house and she handles the money," Ranma replied, "I think I get it now. Thanks, Kasumi...I needed to hear that."

"Of course you did," the older girl smiled, "You're just the sort of person Nabiki needs in her life right now, and if you give her a chance...she might even surprise you."

"Um...you think?" Ranma asked nervously.

"Of course I do," Kasumi replied, "Now...let's get to the store. I want to get more soy sauce before I serve dinner. Thank you, Mother...I'll be by to talk with you again in a couple of days..."

"Er...would you mind if I...came along next time?" Ranma asked.

"I'm sure Mother would be very happy to see you, Ranma-kun," Kasumi replied, "After all, one day soon you may become Nabiki's husband, and then she'll be your mother too."

"Thanks...I think I'd like that," Ranma nodded before catching himself and adding, "I mean...not that I really mean I'm gonna..."

"Of course," Kasumi said with a benign expression, "Take your time and think about it...I'm sure in time you'll make the right decision, Ranma-kun..."

Nabiki heard a gentle rapping and said, "Go away!" without lifting her head from the pillow upon which she was resting.

The rapping persisted, so she looked up in irritation and said, "I said go away-  
huh?" she turned and looked at the window, seeing the inexplicable face of Ranma hanging upside down from the edge of the rooftop. A faint sense of irritation caused her to get up out of bed and go to that window, opening it as she growled out, "What do you want?"

"Ah..." Ranma pulled out an object from his belt and held it out like a peace offering, "You dropped this...it's got your name on it and..."

Nabiki's eyes got comically round as she recognized her ledger, "WHAT? How did you...?"

"Back when you ran off, this kinda fell out onto the street and...well..." Ranma said a bit lamely, "Do you want it?"

Nabiki all but snatched it out of his hand then glared at him and said, "Did you read it?"

"Well...kinda...but not really," Ranma admitted, not wanting to have to confess to a personal weakness, "I couldn't read most of it...I...well..."

"You can't read Hiragana?" Nabiki understood, "Oh...you mean...you never learned?"

Ranma glanced away uneasily and said, "Well...remember what I told you about Pop and anything that doesn't have to do with martial arts...?"

"Oh," Nabiki replied, and then an awkward silence fell between them.

"Um..." Ranma tried to think of something to say, but instead he held out the photos that he had taken off of Kuno, "About these..."

Nabiki tensed slightly.

"...Next time...ask first, okay?" Ranma continued, "I mean...I don't know why you wasted film with the Tomboy...after all, I'm better built than she is."

Nabiki almost expected her little sister to come bursting into the room to hurl something heavy at the boy for saying that. When nothing happened she focused her mind on the implications of what he was saying and went, "Huh?"

"Um...you know...you ain't too bad at this photo stuff," Ranma said as he critically examined the photos, then passed them along to Nabiki, "Here...give 'em to Kuno, he paid for 'em after all. You wouldn't wanna give that money back, not when Kasumi could use it, right?"

Nabiki blinked her eyes, "You...know...?"

"I guessed," Ranma said, "Um...look...Nabiki...maybe we got off on the wrong foot, know what I mean? I didn't mean to say that stuff about you earlier...I thought you were seeing Kuno behind my back...I didn't know it was about business..."

"Business," Nabiki repeated, her tone and expression both equally unreadable.

"Sorry if I got the wrong idea," Ranma continued, "I guess I jumped to conclusions...I'll try not to do that again, all right?"

"Uh...sure..." Nabiki wondered what had brought on this strange personality transformation. Her earlier impressions of Ranma had led her to believe that he would rather had pulled teeth with a pair of pliers than to admit that he could be this wrong about something.

Then Ranma surprised her for a third time, reaching behind himself and pulling out the previously discarded bouquet of roses, "By the way...you dropped this. You said it was for me...my female half...don't know why you'd think I'd want this stuff...but...I think it'd look a lot better with you...um...except I borrowed a few to...give to someone else, okay?"

Nabiki blinked her eyes, then reluctantly accepted the now less-than-full-dozen roses, wondering who else might have received them, wondering what to make of this sudden burst of charity from her somewhat reluctant fianc .

"Um..." Ranma glanced "down" (or rather "up") at his toes and added, "Did you mean what you said before...about wanting to represent me and stuff? I think you said something about turning it into a career and making money...?"

"You mean...you want me to be your Agent?" Nabiki asked.

"Uh...yeah...if you like," Ranma said dubiously, "I mean...I dunno how it works, I don't usually fight for money or stuff like that..."

"But you're willing to try it out...with me as your Promoter?" Nabiki arched an eyebrow.

"Well...I figure that if Pop and me are gonna be staying around here, then one of us ought to at least help pay out for the food and hot water, right?" Ranma reasoned.

"Well...that would help out," Nabiki conceded, "So...you don't mind if you let me set things up, schedule fights and lay odds and things like that?"

"Well...if you think it would help," Ranma conceded.

Nabiki actually smiled as she thought about the possibilities, but then added, "We'd better keep this a secret between the two of us for now...daddy might think I was exploiting you, or something like that."

"Uh...sure, no problem," Ranma paused before adding, "Nabiki...I...um...this stuff about us being engaged and all that...I didn't plan any of this, honest. You gotta believe me..."

"I do."

"...I wouldn't lie to you about a thing like-huh?" Ranma blinked.

"I believe you," Nabiki replied, "I thought you might have been scamming me before, but...after talking about it with Kasumi, I...guess maybe I kind of jumped to the wrong conclusion. You have to admit, though, it was a heck of a coincidence, us meeting the way we did, then finding out that our parents were planning to engage us."

"Uh...yeah...a coincidence," Ranma replied, "Weird, huh?"

"That's one way of putting it," Nabiki nodded.

"Yeah...about the engagement thing," Ranma said, "I dunno about you, but it feels kind of weird. I mean...we're both still kids in High School, what's the rush? I know our Dads have this 'Honor' thing all worked out between them, but...I'd rather take a little more time to get to know you...I mean...you seem like a nice enough girl...and maybe we could be good friends for a while, huh? And, uh...maybe...later...if we...uh...I mean...well...if we start to like each other...maybe then..."

Nabiki's smile deepened, "Well now, Ranma-kun...that actually sounds like a pretty good idea. Did you come up with it yourself?"

"Well...kinda..." Ranma winced.

"I'll tell you what," Nabiki said in counter-proposal, "Why don't we cool this engagement thing and pretend we're just getting along great so your dad and mine don't put a lot of pressure on us to go through with it and all that...and then we just act like we're good friends until we can think of some way to talk them out of it. Agreed?"

"Sure," Ranma sighed, looking more relieved, "That's be great."

Nabiki smiled, "They maybe we can talk about other ways that you can turn this curse of yours to our advantage. Photos aren't the only way you and me could make a lot of money on this thing, Ranma-kun."

"Um...you think?" Ranma blinked.

"I know so," Nabiki's smile deepened, "You were right...maybe we ought to start all over from the beginning, here," she extended her hand, "I'm Tendo Nabiki, how do you do?"

"Ah..." Ranma took her hand awkwardly and shook it, "Saotome Ranma, how do you do?"

"Just fine for myself, thank you," Nabiki added a cute twinkle in her eyes as she added, "Do you wanna get married?"

"Huh?" Ranma blinked, and all at once he lost his grip on the ceiling, his feet slipping off the ledge as he went tumbling down headfirst into the back yard.

"PSYCHE!" Nabiki called down, chuckling to herself as she closed her window, sniffing the roses with a smile before murmuring softly to herself, "Maybe this could be a lot of fun after all...that boy is way too easy to roll..."

"Ouch," Ranma winced as he rubbed his head, "Why do I get the feeling that she's gonna be nothing but trouble...?"

Continued.

Comments/Criticisms/Form and Expression: shadowmane

Ranma gets settled in around the Tendo place while learning more about his new iinazuke, and Akane reveals her own dark romantic secrets. Will it be a "Tale of Two Tendos," or "Cupid's Sloppy Aim?" Be here to find out!

X -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

If you wish to check out my other works, Please check out my Fanfiction webpage at: . All related chapters of this series can be found there along with my other works. 


	5. Chapter 5

RanHearts05

The Horse and Butterfly

By Jim Robert Bader

(Inspired by the works of Rumiko Takahashi)

Chapter Five.

Corrupt Motivations

Ranma leaped high and vaulted the bars with surprisingly little effort, spinning like a monkey and gaining easy height for several gravity-defying turns before giving himself a good dismount and landing some distance away in a graceful one-  
point landing. He then nonchalantly turned back to his appreciative audience and sat down on the grass bluff without even needing to turn to the PE Coach to hear his performance praised as "Outstanding!"

"Wow, you're incredible," said one of the boys nearest to him, a fellow by the name of Hiroshi.

"I heard you trained for acrobatics in China," said another boy named Daisuke.

"It's called Kempo, not Acrobatics, okay?" Ranma replied in mild irritation.

"Yeah, whatever," Hiroshi turned to the new boy-wonder of their school, "So...what's it like living at the Tendo place? Are you and Akane seeing each other on the sly?"

"What, are you crazy?" Ranma reacted, "What would I want to spend time around that Tomboy for?"

"That's right," Daisuke remarked, "You're engaged to marry her sister, Nabiki."

"Nabiki?" Hiroshi winced, "Man, that's brutal? Bet she takes you for every yen piece that you're worth..."

"First off," Ranma said with strained patience, "She's not my iinazuke, that was just some dumb idea of our parents...second, it ain't none of your business what's going on between us anyway. And third, drop it already, will ya?"

"Sure, no problem, Ranma," Hiroshi made deflecting motions with both hands, "But tell us one thing first...just how close have you gotten to scoring with either one of the Tendos?"

"Yeah," Daisuke agreed, "Which do you like better, Akane or Nabiki?"

"Argh!" Ranma winced, having to restrain himself from the natural impulse to beat both boys into a bloody pulp just for asking such a dumb question. The fact that he did not do so, however, was taken by the pair as an open invitation to further pursue the question.

"C'mon, tell us the truth," Hiroshi insisted, "Just how close have you gotten to scoring..."

"Scoring?" Ranma blinked, having no clue as to what it was that he was being asked.

"Don't play dumb," Daisuke persisted, "Have you done it with them yet?"

"Have I done what?" Ranma felt even more confused than ever.

"You know," Hiroshi said, "Had sex?"

"WHAT?" Ranma turned around, "Are you crazy? What kind of a dumb question is that?"

"Something you want to share with the rest of us, Saotome?" the PE Coach asked in none-too-subtle annoyance.

"Ah...no thanks," Ranma winced.

"Good," the Coach smiled, "Then you can show us how you handle the uneven parallel bars, both of them this time.

"All right," Ranma rolled his eyes and got up from his position, pausing as he did so to glance over his shoulder up the rise to where a group of girls were currently sitting in the shade of a nearby tree...

"Wow," one of these girls was saying to her companions, "So that's your new fianc ...he's so handsome..."

"He's a Bo-hunk!" agreed another girl, "You must feel incredibly lucky..."

"Please girls," Nabiki said to her companions, "It's just a business relationship, nothing more. Despite what our Dads may thing, Ranma and I are business associates, nothing more. He's going to be the key to a whole new avenue of profit, and he's agreed to fight for me when we set up that match next week at Kolhotz High School."

"Your business associate?" Ryonami said, "Sempai, you've gotta be kidding!"

"Boss, you can't really mean to say that you're going to make a dream-boat like that get into fights for money? He could get really messed up and lose his good looks!" Numa argued, "And that would be a crime against all women!"

"He's not going to get beat up, Ladies," Nabiki pronounced the word with emphasis as she calmly sat eating from her bento, "Ranma is that once-in-a-  
lifetime special kind of talent who is uniquely gifted and a cut above any ordinary martial artist. Why, he even took out Kuno without half trying..."

"Yeah, but your sister can do that," Numa insisted, "And Akane keeps insisting that she doesn't even like boys..."

"Which is weird when you consider that she's the most popular girl in our high school," Ryonami thoughtfully added.

"I assure you, Ranma is a lot better than Akane...in fact, he's better than any fighter that most of us have ever even thought about," Nabiki assured them, "The things I've seen him do defy description, and with a little coaching from me he could go really far, depending on if I can play my cards just right.

"And you're saying that you have absolutely no interest in him at all beyond his skill as a fighter?" Numa marveled, turning with a meaningful glance towards the track below them, "No interest...in that?"

Nabiki felt compelled to glance up from her bento and saw that Ranma was executing another dismount after achieving a one-handed stand with his body pointed upward to the sky in an inverted position. When he swung off the bars and instituted a combination twist and roll before landing lightly on his feet with the same effortless ease that he had previously demonstrated.

"Wow..." Ryonami said in breathless astonishment.

"He is so cool..." Numa tacitly agreed.

"If you don't mind," Nabiki said levelly, "I am trying to eat my lunch here, and I can't do that while trying to talk to you at the same time, Ladies."

Ryonami exchanged looks with Numa, then the two of them just shrugged in resignation. They knew their "Boss" well by now, knew that Nabiki would not-  
even if she felt any emotions-admit to having them, even before the two of them, on the subject of Saotome Ranma.

But if they had but looked closer they would have seen the way Nabiki's eyes kept stealing looks of their own as though acting under the will of another. Nabiki was indeed maintaining a stoic fa ade, but beneath the surface she was anything but calm and tranquil, the sight of Ranma moving with such tigerish ease being enough to trigger even her most deeply suppressed feminine instincts.

She meant what she said about Ranma being her business partner...the boy, much to her surprise, had proven to have a brain in his head after all, first impressions being otherwise. More and more she was seeing the sensitive guy whom she had thought she met on the day of their engagement, a boy who was lonely but very much self-possessed by his own sense of unshakable purpose. She had been delighted upon meeting him to discover a guy who actually had some depth to him, who had more going on beneath the surface than he would let on most times. It had him frankly a bit of a mystery to her, a contradictory puzzle, and if there was one thing that Nabiki could not resist, it was a mystery that demanded closer analysis. She wanted to know more about her iinazuke, even if she denied having amorous intentions...

Ranma was just sitting back down to take his place among the other boys when the sound of a ball cracking against a bat drew his attention to another part of the field, one dominated by a Baseball court upon which a girl's team was currently in practice. All at once a dark haired girl made an astounding leap and caught it before the ball could get by her.

"Wow, that Akane sure is something," Hiroshi said.

"Yeah, did you see her make that catch?" Daisuke agreed.

"Big deal," Ranma said, sounding bored, "She oughta be able to leap twice as high as that with her kind of strength. Too bad her Pop never taught her how to move just right..."

"Are you kidding me?" Hiroshi turned to the boy, "Are you saying you don't feel anything when you see Akane in action?"

"Hey, she ain't bad, it's just that she could be a lot better," Ranma insisted, "Besides, I don't all worked up and bothered about some uncute Tomboy, like you guys. I got better stuff to think about..."

"Like Nabiki?" Daisuke asked.

"Argh!" Ranma winced, "Would you lay off of me on that? We hardly even know each other...!"

"That's true," Hiroshi replied, "But you gotta admit, Nabiki sure is a fox..."

"Yeah, a Fox in the hen coup," Ranma countered.

"You're probably right about that," Daisuke sighed, "She only dates boys who can afford to treat her out on dates, and she always winds up charging them twice as much as other girls. You try and date her, Ranma, and she'll probably charge the shirt right off of your back."

Ranma tensed slightly, but then he settled down and said, "Yeah...that's kind of what I was afraid of...what other guys...?" he rounded on Daisuke, suddenly anything but indifferent...

"Sempai, it's not that we're trying to pry into your personal life," Ryonami insisted, "It's just...well...you have to admit that Saotome Ranma isn't like the other boys in our school..."

"You've got that right," Nabiki insisted, calmly finishing up her bento, "He's rude, crude and basically uncivilized..."

"But at least he's not a pervert, like Kuno," Numa pointed out, "And with those dreamy eyes of his...you ever see eyes so blue, Ryo-chan?"

"No," Ryonami gushed, "When he looks at me I just melt...too bad he only has eyes for you, Sempai..."

"He does not," Nabiki insisted, then paused, "What makes you think that way?"

"Because he keeps looking up here at you," Numa pointed out, "You see...he's doing it now!"

"What?" Nabiki shot a look at where Ranma was sitting, only to see him hastily turn away, which surprised her more than a little.

"You see?" Ryonami crowed in confirmation, "He likes you...no wonder he barely even knows that Akane exists when you're around. He's the only boy who hasn't tried to challenge her for a date yet..."

"Probably because he'd beat her if he wanted, which makes her less of a challenge," Numa replied, "But you know how to handle him, don't you, Boss?"

"Not really," Nabiki said as she set her now-empty bento down, having savored the last bite of Kasumi's delicious cooking, "Take my words for it, girls, he's quite a handful, and you never know exactly what he's going to say or do next."

"But you'd still want to marry him anyway, right?" Ryonami smiled broadly.

"Oooohhhh," Nabiki growled in frustration, getting up with as much dignity as she could muster, "We are NOT having this discussion, ladies, in fact, I expect the both of you to concentrate on your assignments and leave me out of your gossip..."

"Oh look, he's coming here now!" Numa announced, pointing her finger in Ranma's direction.

"Wha...?" Nabiki started to say, only to gasp as she saw Ranma effortlessly vault over the fence to come to stand before her and her two best friends. She found herself looking up at him without a clever word on her lips as he came to stand before her, looking somewhat hesitant and unsure of himself, which about described her own feelings at the moment.

"Oh, look at the time," Ryonami said, glancing at her watch, "Classes start in another fifteen minutes...guess we'd better hurry, right Numa?"

"Right," her co-conspirator agreed, the both hiding smiles as they turned away and retreated for a reasonable distance, then hid in the bushes and tried to listen in as best they could to the following conversation.

"Um..." Ranma looked down as if not sure of where to begin.

"Aren't you afraid your Coach is going to call you out for leaving class without permission, Ranma?" Nabiki asked, deciding that was a neutral enough topic.

"I...um...said I had to be excused for a minute," Ranma replied, then he added, "Besides...you said you wanted to see me later about a job?"

"Ah...yes..." Nabiki replied, "My Factors and I found a likely spot that would be perfect for our needs. If you don't mind traveling by bus to another part of town..."

"No problem for me," Ranma said, "But if you gave me an address I could get there faster."

"Uh...right," Nabiki decided not to question whether or not he really could move faster than a bus by his own means, "If it's all the same, though, I'd rather be there to represent you. I, at least, have some experience doing things like this, and as your Personal Manager, it's my duty to give you needed tips and pointers..."

"Um...whatever," Ranma seemed to be searching for a way to broach another subject and then decided to just plunge in with the question, "So...is it true?"

"Is what true?" Nabiki asked, taken slightly by surprise by his question.

"What they said about you dating other guys...before me," Ranma explained by way of clarification.

"Oh," Nabiki arched her eyebrows, "And this concerns you...how?"

"Just tell me, will ya?" Ranma pleaded.

"All right," Nabiki replied, "The answer is...yes...I have dated other guys...on occasion. Not too many, mind you...not that it's any of your business..."

"Never said it was," Ranma assured her.

"And, if this is what worries you so much, that's all I've ever done," Nabiki assured him, "Just dated. I've even kissed once or twice, but..."

"You have?" Ranma's eyes went very wide.

"You make it seem like a Federal offence," Nabiki sniffed, "But that is all I've done, Ranma. I've never gone any farther than that...never had to, really, not even if the boy asks..."

"Um...farther?" Ranma seemed slightly confused by the question.

Nabiki just looked at him crossly, "Don't tell me you have no idea what happens when a girl says 'Yes,' do you? Despite what you may have heard, I'm not that easy, Ranma."

"Um..." Ranma shuffled his feet, not wanting to admit to his nearly total ignorance on the subject of men and women.

Nabiki just stared at him, "Are you serious, Saotome? Don't you know anything about Sex?"

"Ah..." Ranma squirmed a bit under the force of her incredulous gaze.

"What has that father of yours been teaching you anyway?" Nabiki asked, then added, "Never mind, rhetorical question. So...it's just been the martial arts for you and nothing else, huh?"

"Just about, yeah," Ranma shrugged, "Pop always said the other stuff would be too distracting..."

"That other stuff being...?" Nabiki inquired with arching eyebrows.

"Well...just about everything," Ranma sighed, "Remember I told you before that I always wondered if life was about more than just training?"

"Yes, but to be ignorant about something as basic as-WATCH OUT!" Nabiki suddenly cried, looking up past his shoulder.

"Huh?" Ranma turned around, following her line of vision, only to find an object growing in size and filling his whole vision. The next thing he knew his vision was filled with stars, fireworks and pinwheels, then all at once he fell back into Nabiki's arms, sporting a baseball that had clipped him right between the eyeballs...

"Honestly, Nabiki...I never meant for this to happen!" Akane insisted, "It was an accident, really!"

"Uhuh," Nabiki replied skeptically, "You just happened to land him one right dead center. If one didn't know you any better, little sister, they might be inclined to think that you did it on purpose."

"I did not!" Akane insisted, only to mellow out her tone a bit as she added, "At least...I wasn't trying to hit him...it just...got away from me. I really don't know how this could have happened..."

And it was the truth, Akane insisted to herself, she had not deliberately been aiming to nail Ranma in the face with a baseball. She had been standing at home plate with a baseball bat, intending to hit one of Sayuri's fastballs right out of the park, when she chanced to glance at the rise, where she happened to see Ranma talking to her sister. She remembered smiling at that, wishing she could hear what the two of them had been saying and hoping (for once) that Ranma would not blow it by saying one of his typically impulsive remarks, which might land him back on Nabiki's bad side...when all at once her attention had been called back to the plate as the fast ball came whizzing her way, and Akane had swung her bat automatically with all her power, driving it hard and over the fence...

...And directly into the face of a much-surprised Ranma!

He presently was being examined by Doctor Tofu, who was having a look at the bruise that filled the space directly above the bridge of his nose. Ranma looked like he had been struck in the face by a mallet and even had the ball stitching imprinted against his forehead. Doctor Tofu studied this for a moment, making several "Hmms" and "Ahhh" noises before at last rendering a verdict on the matter.

"If I didn't know better," he said, "I'd think this was Akane's handiwork..."

"Urk!" Akane winced.

"Whoah," Ranma reacted, "You can tell that just by looking?"

"Well, from the angle of the ball and the force with which it struck, I'd say it was a pretty good guess," Tofu replied, "How far away were you from the plate when this happened?"

"I'd say about a hundred and twenty-two meters," Nabiki estimated.

"Nabiki!" Akane winced.

"Oh no," Tofu turned around, "I was just joking. Akane...do you mean to say that you really were the one who did this?"

"Ah..." Akane glanced down, now thoroughly embarrassed about the whole matter.

Just then another figure stepped into the clinic, causing Akane to glance up and say, "Mister Saotome?"

"What?" Ranma turned around and saw his panda father standing at the entrance, "Pop? What are you doing here?"

"Oh," Tofu replied, "Meet my new employee, Mister Saotome. He has a rare condition that makes him look just like a panda, but he really is a very hard worker..."

"What-POP?" Ranma's eyes bugged out in disbelief.

The panda held up a sign that said, "I was going to tell you about it over breakfast..."

"Oh yes," Nabiki smiled, "I forgot to mention that your father volunteered to get a job in order to earn some money so he can pay his share of the food bill, not to mention earn a little spending money, isn't that right, Old Man?"

The panda just hung his head and nodded as though not very proud about the matter.

"Oh?" Tofu turned and looked questioningly at Ranma, "You mean Saotome-san is really your father?"

"Not that I'd like admit it or nothing," Ranma grumbled, turning to look again at the panda, "You mean...you're working here? What's the matter, the Zoo too good to take you in?"

Nabiki found herself laughing before she had time to think about the matter, covering her gaff with a hand as she added, "Well...that is kind of funny..."

"I'm glad you think so," Akane said, "Personally, I think it's very nice of Mister Saotome to volunteer for a thing like this. Every little bit help out, right?"

"Oh yes," Nabiki arched an eyebrow, "So, when do you plan on doing your part, Sis?"

"Um...gotta run, see you later!" Akane picked up her book bag and started to head for the entrance.

"Oh, wait up, Akane," Tofu said, "Now that Mister Saotome is here, he can boil some tea water, then we can talk about your new fianc ."

"My fianc ?" Akane blinked, "Oh...you're mistaken, Tofu-sensei," she glanced down, immediately shy, "I'm not the one engaged to Ranma, Nabiki is..."

"Awk!" Nabiki winced.

"Nabiki?" Tofu turned around with a mildly surprised expression.

"It was our parents idea, honest!" she insisted.

"Oh...well now," Tofu smiled, "Isn't that a surprise? When you both were in here the other day I had no idea that you were so close to one another, not that it would be hard to imagine the both of you as a couple..."

"Hah?" both Ranma and Nabiki said in chorus.

"It's true," Akane smiled, "I think they make a lovely couple myself. Well, have to leave...maybe some other time with the tea, Doctor Tofu...?"

Before her question was even completed the phone on Tofu's reception desk rang, and Tofu went to answer it, saying, "Moshi Moshi...yes...oh? Oh...K-K-Kasumi? Fancy meeting you here...have you seen Betty-chan? Oh...oh my..."

The phone fell from his hand as he suddenly started dancing, grabbing his skeleton off its hanger and darting around the room like a man having just ingested a powerful hallucinogenic.

"Huh?" Ranma reacted, "What just got into him all of a sudden?"

"Uh oh," Nabiki said, "I think that's our cue to leave, Sis..."

"No fooling," Akane growled, looking down at her feet..

"Coming, Ranma-kun?" Nabiki asked.

"Uh..." Ranma blinked as he saw the doctor pause to compliment a bed-pan, then Nabiki grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him after her as she and Akane made a hasty exit.

"What was that all about?" he asked of the two girls once they were out on the street again heading back to the dojo.

"Oh, Tofu just gets like that every time Kasumi comes to pay him a visit," Nabiki replied, "She's probably either coming over to return a book or pick out a new one, and every time she shows up it's a pretty good idea to get as far out of Tofu's way as you can manage."

"What gives?" Ranma asked, "Why does he get like that around Kasumi?"

"Because Tofu likes her, okay?" Akane retorted, "Having Kasumi around always makes him act this crazy..."

"But what about you?" Ranma asked, "I thought you had a thing for the guy-  
urk!"

All at once Akane grabbed him by the shirt and slammed him up against the nearest wall surface, "That's enough! Do you like tormenting me with the fact that he likes Kasumi more than me, huh? Do you?"

"Hey, what are you yelling at me for?" Ranma wondered, "I was just asking you a question..."

"It's a bit personal, don't you think, Ranma-kun?" Nabiki pointed out, "Tofu never acts like that around Akane, it's just Kasumi who sets him off into behaving like a loon."

"He...thinks of me as nothing more than a schoolgirl," Akane said bitterly, "It's not fair!"

"While Akane has been looking up to Tofu-sensei for as long as I can remember," Nabiki somewhat gently pointed out.

"Oh..." Ranma looked from one sister to the other then said, "Leaving you with a broken heart, huh? That's too bad. Does it mean that he's planning on marrying your sister?"

"If he can ever work up the nerve," Nabiki pointed out, "But Kasumi acts totally oblivious to the Doctor's actual feelings, and Tofu can never calm himself down enough to behave rationally in her presence."

"But..." Ranma looked at Akane again and said, "Ain't you just a few years younger? Why wouldn't he like Kasumi over you? Not that I can understand what he'd see in a Tomboy like..."

Akane's fist smashed into the wall beside his ear, splintering it down asunder.

"You were saying?" she asked in tones that all but dared him to continue mocking her feelings.

"Uh...all right," Ranma allowed, "So maybe he could come to like you after all since your sister doesn't know he's interested..."

"But you don't understand," Akane said miserably, staring down at her feet, "How could I ever compete against the likes of Kasumi? She's...she's too perfect..."

"Got that right," Nabiki nodded, "She'd make a pretty good wife for any man. She's a better cook than either one of us, a better seamstress, housekeeper, domestic, laundry-person..."

"Whoah," Ranma said, "You mean...she does everything around the house?"

"More or less," Akane replied without looking up.

"But don't you guys try to help out?" Ranma wondered.

"I do what I can with the family finances," Nabiki replied, "But that's about the limits of my domestic talents."

"Besides...Kasumi likes doing housekeeping," Akane sighed, "She doesn't seem to mind if we rely on her as much as we do, in fact...she insists on us letting her take care of the chores around the house..."

"It still doesn't seem fair," Ranma replied, "What is she, your personal slave or something?"

"Slave?" Akane reacted.

"It's not like that at all," Nabiki insisted, "We very much value her contributions around the house, it's just that...there can only be so much we can do to help her out. Kasumi takes joy out of helping others, and the little bit we do is...well...appreciated, like not adding to her problems, know what I mean?"

"Not adding...?" Ranma started to say when he saw Akane's expression darken slightly, looking away from him even more embarrassed than usual.

"Right," Nabiki said, giving her little sister a particularly tart expression, "Like...by not punching holes in the place, like that time Kuno-chan came by to deliver those roses..."

"That's all his fault!" Akane said defensively, "The pervert should have known better than to try and surprise me in the bathroom!"

"Whoah," Ranma smiled, "Guess you really are a Tomboy if a little flowers set you off like that..."

"What was that?" Akane sputtered, "I can't believe you just said that! Are you trying to make me angry?"

"Hey, come on," Ranma waved his hands in a deflecting manner, "It was just a joke...can't you take a little ribbing now and then without overreacting?"

"Overreacting?" Akane made a motion as if rolling up her sleeve, "I'll show you overreacting-!"

"Oh my," Kasumi's voice cut into the atmosphere of pending violence, causing Akane to freeze up with a startled expression, "Fancy meeting all of you like this. Hello Akane, Nabiki, Ranma...oh my, Ranma-kun...what happened to your forehead?"

"It's nothing," Ranma insisted, "Just a little accident, it should clear up in another hour or two..."

"Huh?" Nabiki eyed him with a much-surprised expression.

"You should have Doctor Tofu look at that," Kasumi said with a pleasant enough smile as she paused to study the boy's bruises, "Why, to look at that, you'd almost think you'd been hit with a baseball..."

"Gaah..." Akane winced, hand over her heart with a most non-plussed expression.

"Hey, good guess," Ranma cupped his hands behind his head and leaned back against the wall, "A baseball hit by a Tomboy, more like it..."

"Oh really?" Kasumi asked mildly, "Akane, you should know better than to play rough like that with Nabiki's iinazuke. Well...don't be late getting home, I'll have dinner ready in just a few more hours."

"We'll be there, Oneechan," Nabiki assured her, then watched as their elder sister went off in the direction of Doctor Tofu's place.

Akane heaved a sigh, looking even sadder than ever.

"So she's the one Tofu-Sensei is nuts for, huh?" Ranma asked, turning to Akane before adding, "And I guess that leaves you feeling kinda out of it, huh?"

"It's none of your business," Akane responded without heat or genuine anger.

Nabiki looked in concern at her little sister, then sighed, "Tofu-Sensei is nuts all right...and it won't be safe to be anywhere around him until at least a half hour after Kasumi's said her good-byes. Trust me on this, Ranma, you'd be safer on the other side of the moon than to let him work on you when he's in his Kasumi-befuddled state."

"I guess maybe I shouldn't say anything, 'cause it's none of my business," Ranma noted, "But I guess in a way I can see why the Doc is so crazy about your sister. I mean, she's way lots cuter than a Tomboy like you, Akane, and I'll bet she's never tried taking him to the cleaners for every yen he has, eh Nabiki?"

"Hah?" both sisters suddenly glared at him with matching expressions.

"On the other hand," Ranma continued, "If the Doc can never get around to telling her how he feels, then how's she ever gonna know? And if he can't control himself when she's around..."

"Kasumi is oblivious to how Tofu-Sensei feels because she's only seen him act like a circus carnival freak," Nabiki responded tartly.

"So, maybe he would be better off with one of you in his life, eh?" Ranma smiled, "I mean, you may not be as good a housewife, but at least he treats you decent enough, and besides, a cute girl like you, Nabiki, oughta have no problem at all landing a doctor for a husband."

"Huh?" the sisters said again, startled by this mercurial change in the boy's behavior, one minute insulting them, the next offering a sort-of-compliment.

"Hah, Psyche!" Ranma declared, grinning broadly, "Come on, guys, lighten up! I know it looks bad for you, Akane, but you ought to be able to do better than to moon over some guy who dances with skeletons and talks to light sockets..."

"Why you...I'll show you how I do better!" Akane flared, lashing out before Nabiki could say anything to deflect the situation...

"Just remember, Mister," Nabiki sternly lectured her new 'boyfriend,' "You definitely had this coming."

"OW!" Ranma winced, unable to say more than this as he was literally dragged back to Doctor Tofu's clinic, his body bent up like a pretzel, "It...hurts!"

"Of course it does, Baka," Nabiki growled, "What did you think was going to happen with you pushing all of Akane's buttons like that? You're lucky I didn't just leave you there on the sidewalk. Good thing, by the time we get there, Tofu-Sensei will probably have calmed down and be out of his Kasumi-maddened state. Uhgh...you're heavy! You're really gonna owe me for this one..."

A good thing for Ranma that Nabiki had lots of prior experience dragging Kuno to the school nurse's office, because it definitely was not as easy for her to lug a boy around as it might have been for Akane. The irony of their situation was not entirely lost on her either...that he had carried her to Tofu's clinic the other day, and now here she was returning the favor.

Sure enough, as predicted, by the time she got Ranma all the way to Tofu's doorstep the Doctor had indeed calmed down, and-because his other patients knew well enough to stay out of his way whenever the older Tendo sister was around-there were no other patients ahead of Ranma. Nabiki was thoroughly glad of that because she was exhausted from her labors and knew that she could call upon the services of Tofu himself to bring Ranma the rest of the way into the clinic.

Moments later Ranma was on the table being examined by the now-rational Doctor, who studied the bent and distorted limbs before saying, "Akane did this? Yes...must be...it looks just like her handiwork..."

"T-T-Tomboy...did this..." Ranma declared in some agony.

"Well, you probably said something to upset her," Tofu smiled as he set to work bending Ranma's limbs at bone-cracking angles, "She's a very sensitive girl, you know, and she doesn't like it when people tease her..."

"You hear that, Saotome?" Nabiki said without flinching as she heard Ranma give a yelp in protest of his rude Rolfing treatments, "Maybe next time you'll think before you open that big mouth of yours. You can't just needle Akane like you do with your dad, it just sets her off like there's no tomorrow."

"OOOW!" Ranma sat up and glared at Doctor Tofu, "That hurts you know!"

"Really?" Tofu seemed genuinely surprised, "That's very strange...where does it hurt now?"

"I-uh-huh?" Ranma blinked, stretching his arms and rotating his shoulders, "Hey, I'm cured!"

"What did I tell you, Ranma-kun?" Nabiki smiled, "When Tofu-Sensei is at his best, there's no other quite like him."

"Thanks, Doc," Ranma said, "What do I owe you?"

"Just try and keep out of Akane's way for a while," Tofu patted the younger man affectionately on the shoulder, "Give her a chance and you'll see that she's really a very sweet girl...but a bit overly defensive about some things."

"Yeah, you got that right," Ranma averred, hopping off of the table, "But I still don't see what the big deal is. Pop and me trade insults all the time and it never hurts us..."

"That's because you're used to it," Nabiki said, "And you know that you can beat each other to a standstill without doing any real damage."

"Yeah, well, a Mercenary like you oughta know a few things about insults," Ranma teased.

"W-What?" Nabiki arched her eyebrows, "What did you just call me?"

"You see?" Ranma smiled, "That's what I was trying to tell you before. You're both way too sensitive, and in Akane's case that's a definite disadvantage. How does she expect to always keep winning her fights if she can't control her anger? Losing control like that's how she lost to me the first time we tried sparring."

"You may have a point about that," Nabiki frowned, "But that still doesn't give you the right to needle the both of us with your childish games, Mister."

"And what are you gonna do to me if I start calling you...um...'Biki?" he grinned.

"Biki?" his iinazuke bristled, "Don't you dare call me that..."

"How about Nabi then?" Ranma grinned, "You see? You get mad over nothing, you let somebody else get the advantage. Pop always says that getting mad only counts if it helps you to stay focused, not if it takes your mind off of fighting of makes the other guy seem more important..."

"That's very true, Ranma," Tofu agreed, "Being at one with your emotions is a key discipline to the martial arts, and if your emotions overwhelm you...well...you could become a menace to yourself and to others."

Both Nabiki and Ranma eyed the man dubiously, the moreso for the total lack of irony in the Doctor's expression.

"Uh...yeah..." Ranma said, "Just what I said..."

"All right," Nabiki said levelly, "I can see how insults could make a pretty effective weapon against someone who can't handle their own emotions, but not everybody around you is a potential opponent, Ranma. You shouldn't go around teasing and insulting people just because you think you can get away with it."

"Whatever you say...'Biki," Ranma smiled, sensing his own tactical advantage.

"Ooooh," Nabiki fumed, "If that's the thanks I get from you for being nice, then I'm leaving!"

As she turned to go Ranma blinked his eyes, then he started to follow, only to feel Tofu's hand upon her shoulder.

"Ranma," Tofu advised, "I know she's your iinazuke and that the two of you are just getting to know one another, but you really ought to be a little more sensitive to her feelings."

"Hey, it's not me, Doc," Ranma insisted, "It's just that she's such a Mercenary, she treats me like I'm nothing more than one of her assets..."

"That's hardly fair, and I doubt that it's true either," Tofu replied, "I've known Nabiki since she was a little girl, and while she might pretend to be aloof and emotionless, inside I know that she's basically a very sweet girl who just needs a little patience and understanding. You'll see for yourself if you give her half a chance. Now...off you go...don't want to let her get too much of a lead on you, right?"

With that Tofu gave Ranma a meaningful pat on the small of his back, propelling Ranma forward. The younger man briefly turned a questioning look, seeing an amused gleam behind the glasses of the kindly Chiropractor, then he turned and hurried out the door, intent on catching up with Nabiki.

Tofu glanced up at his wall clock and smiled, "In another five minutes..."

"Go away!" Nabiki fumed as she sensed the presence of her iinazuke walking along the wall directly above her.

"Aw, c'mon, Nabiki!" Ranma said as he easily kept pace with her, "I didn't mean nothing like that. I just meant that there ain't no reason why Akane has to get all emotional and stuff. I mean...it ain't written in stone that she can't have Tofu-Sensei, right?"

"That's for Akane to decide," Nabiki replied, "And if you weren't such an insensitive jerk, you'd know that, Baka..."

All at once Ranma vaulted down directly in her path, compelling her to halt her forward momentum and look right up at him, seeing a hint of his teasing expression on his handsome features, which again left her with the conflicting desires to either kiss or slap him silly.

"Okay, so maybe I did kind of needle her a bit," Ranma insisted, "But you know I didn't mean nothing by that. Besides, you both oughta be able to take a joke..."

"A joke?" Nabiki said, "Toying around with the feelings of others is hardly funny, Ranma..."

"Yeah?" he arched an eyebrow, "And taking pictures of people when they're asleep is?"

Nabiki did not answer that, just glanced away to hide a faintly guilty expression.

"Actually," Ranma went on, "I didn't mind those photos so much, it's just the way you got 'em that made me a little upset. You poured water over me when I was asleep...what did you think I felt like when I woke up and found my furo all wet?"

"Huh?" Nabiki turned and blinked at him, "You didn't...?"

"Hey, how was I to know?" Ranma shrugged, "I haven't wet my bedding since I was little. Because of you I had to change my own sheets and wash my own bedding just so's nobody would have to find out about it, especially Pop! Kasumi even complimented me for doing it, but I didn't want her finding out either...it woulda been too embarrassing..."

"Oh my," Nabiki had to cover her mouth to stifle a laugh, her eyes suddenly alight with mischief.

"Yeah, and I didn't find that funny neither," Ranma glared at her, "Next time I find my bed wet like that, I'm dumping it in your room."

"You wouldn't dare," Nabiki abruptly sobered.

"Try me," Ranma grinned before adding the word, "'Biki..."

Back in the clinic Tofu glanced at the wall and smiled, slowly counting backwards, "...5...4...3...2...1..."

"You are so dead, Mister!" Nabiki advanced upon her alleged "boyfriend," intending to whack him one with her school bag.

"Nyah-nyah!" Ranma teased, easily avoiding her while making a face, sticking out his tongue and waving his fingers at her, "What's the matter? Can't catch me like the Tomboy?"

"You...!" Nabiki growled, only to break off with a startled, "Huh?"

Ranma wondered what she was talking about when he suddenly felt his lower spine go numb, then all at once his legs gave out from underneath him and he started collapsing backwards, landing on his rump with a rather rude, "OOF! Hey...what gives? I can't move my legs?"

Nabiki studied his prone form then lifted her nose and said, "Serves you right for calling me 'Biki. Next time, I trust, you'll remember this occasion."

"Huh?" Ranma watched as Nabiki walked around him, moving out of his line of vision, "Hey, Nabiki! Don't go away mad! I didn't mean to-GLUBGLUB!"

The latter part came as a spray of hose water struck him in the face, and then all at once his curse was triggered and he felt himself growing smaller, reverting to his female incarnation.

"There now," Nabiki said as she turned off the hose that she had borrowed from a nearby yard, "That's much better. No way am I going to be lugging you all the way home in your boy condition."

"Huh?" onna-Ranma blinked as Nabiki went around to the front of her, then bent down and took her by the hands, curling them around her neck.

"All right," Nabiki said, "Just hang on tight." And with that she rolled forward, getting her legs underneath her, then straightened up in one fluid motion, exactly as if she had practiced this many times with Kuno.

Onna-Ranma found herself stretched across the back of the middle Tendo sister as Nabiki easily carried the smaller girl piggyback fashioned. They had only gotten a little ways like this, however, when Ranma paused to ask, "Um...just what am I gonna owe you for this one?"

"I'll put it on your tab, Mister," Nabiki chimed pleasantly, "You can work it off just as soon as I come up with some good ways to make it worth my while. What's the matter, are you complaining?"

"Um...no..." Ranma said as she leaned her head on Nabiki's shoulder, marveling that the other girl would be doing this for her without prompting.

"Just one more thing, though," Nabiki added, "Don't ever call me 'Biki, you got that?"

"Uh...kind of," Ranma averred, wincing slightly.

In the back of her mind she heard Tofu's words echoing, ("...she actually a very sweet girl, you should give her a chance, you'll see...")

(I don't really...at least...not yet), Ranma silently thought to herself as she was carried all the way back to the Tendo household, for once glad of her curse as it would have been far too humiliating had Nabiki done this for her when she was male. She did not really understand what made the self-contradictory girl she was riding behave the way she did...hidden altruism, pure Mercenarial opportunism, or maybe a combination of both aspects...but she found it only deepened the mystery of what made Nabiki Nabiki. Maybe one day she would finally figure it out...

(And maybe pigs can fly), she mentally added, resting her head against Nabiki's head and chancing to think, (She smells real nice...what does she do with her hair to make it smell like this...AWP! I really am turning into a pervert!)

(I'm just looking out for my best assets), Nabiki reassured herself, (I'm doing this to protect my investment in the Baka...no way am I doing this because I-  
UGH-like him...and besides, it's kind of nice to have somebody like this in my debt...and...is she sniffing my ear? What the heck is she thinking...?)

Mutually confused, equally conflicted, the two girls went home together, just another day at the office and in the lifespan of a very strange partnership that was blooming between them, uncertain what the next day might contain but reasonably willing to abide by their differences...at least for the immediate present...

Continued.

Comments/Criticisms/Curiosity that Killed the Cat: shadowmane

Akane tries to work through her feelings about Tofu while Ranma decides that maybe it's his turn to play Cupid, while Nabiki sets him up for his first "Challenge Match" at another high school...and...who is that clueless stranger who can't seem to find his way out of a closet? Be here next time for: "Blast from the Past," or "Umbrella Coverage." Be there!

X -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

If you wish to check out my other works, Please check out my Fanfiction webpage at: . All related chapters of this series can be found there along with my other works. 


	6. Chapter 6

RanHearts06a

The Horse and Butterfly

By Jim Robert Bader

(Inspired by the works of Rumiko Takahashi)

Intermission.

Nexus of Worlds-Limbo,  
Time Patrol HQ, Station #317

"So, how are things coming?" Gosunkugi asked of his fellow "co-conspirator," Ryonami, "Is our special project coming along as we imagined?"

"So far yes," Ryonami replied as she studied her monitor displays, "It was touch and go for a while there...Sempai got a bit paranoid...I think we maybe played too much on the 'Amazing Coincidence' angle, but things seem to have settled down for a bit between her and Ranma-kun. I'm checking up periodically just to insure that the course of true love really does run smoothly this time."

"That's good," Gosunkugi nodded, "Let's just hope it runs smoother than the history we both know about. If we can do this while averting any possible tragedy..."

"Well, keep your fingers crossed and hope that these two really do get it right," Ryonami said, "We both know how stubborn and perverse they can be when they've got a reason to be competitive, still..."

"Are you two taking a coffee break while on duty?"

"AWP!" Ryonami and Gosunkugi yelped together, turning to face the immediate Supervisor of Operations on this level, the aforementioned Tendo Nabiki.

"Sempai?" Ryonami gasped, "I mean...Boss? I thought you were still away with Ranma-kun on that last assignment..."

"Turns out my services weren't really needed after all," Nabiki replied, "Ranchan-as is his usual wont-decided to blow the living hell out of the whole installation. It's going to take our people days to piece together some of the missing artifacts that the Syndicate had in its possession. So...what have you two been doing while I was away?"

"Oh...nothing, nothing important," Ryonami smiled, "It's been quiet around here while you've been out...why do you ask?"

"Because you've got that look on your face that tells me that you have been up to something," Nabiki frowned, "Out with it, you two...what have you been doing in my absence?"

"Nothing, really, honest, Ma'am...I mean...gotta go!" Gosunkugi turned and fled from the monitoring station, leaving Ryonami in the lurch, to which she grumbled, "Coward," to her retreating boyfriend.

"Ryo-chan," Nabiki folded her arms and looked crossly at her assistant, "I am waiting..."

"Ah...really, Boss...I mean...there's nothing going on here," Ryonami made a quick motion of glancing at her watch, "Oh, look at the time...I'm fifteen minutes after my shift. Well, gotta book...company doesn't exactly pay overtime here...see you!"

Nabiki blinked as she saw her subordinate all but vault from her cubicle and flee the scene with as much haste as discretion would allow. Rather than call out to a longtime friend in order to have her stay and make a full accounting for herself, however, she turned to Ryonami's now-inactive station, now more convinced than ever that there was something going on here that required some proper supervision.

Nabiki spoke into her wrist communicator and said, "Priority Alpha Command Override, Station number 371, Authorization Delta, Operations Supervisor Tendo Nabiki, 23759148 Omega."

"Authorization Confirmed," her unit responded, "Unlocking Terminal 371 for Directorial Review."

"Now then," Nabiki said as she advanced upon Ryonami's console, "Let's just see what you and D-san have been up to behind my back..."

She knew, of course, that Ryonami would have taken steps to cover her tracks, every trick in the book would have been employed to mask her most recent activities...but it was a book which Nabiki herself had authored, and she had taught it to Ryonami verbatim. There was little that her talented prot g could do that would escape the notice of a trained Lore Master, and so Nabiki had little difficulty tracking down the recent modifications that had taken place in one of the Timelines under direct TP Supervision...Paratime designation #69482317, Grid Alpha...a divergence in the normal timeflow that was highly reminiscent of one of those "Bet" timelines that occasionally turned up in the system.

This concerned Nabiki, for "Bet" timelines were purposefully created anomalies, Virtual Timefields that were often temporarily created as a means of exploring the possibilities inherent in the Paradimensional framework of Multiversal Existence. Sometimes a powerful being would deliberately choose to alter the Destiny Flow of a particular timeline in order to explore the implications of some quandary or riddle which they found particularly vexing. Often the change started out as something extremely minor or seemingly inconsequential, which often created a sequence of escalating and correlating changes that grew progressively more radical until the result was an entirely new framework. It was a bit like the old Probability Paradigm adage, which held that the wings of a Butterfly could change air currents and cause a Hurricane to result somewhere else upon the planet. It was a theory tested and proven countless times in her experience, and often it made life very interesting at Time Patrol Central where such periodic Temporal changes were noted and recorded with the regularity of clockwork.

Usually these changes were effected by means of Yggdrasil, the Universe-spanning Godly computer known as the "Tree of Life" in ancient legend, a vast worlds-  
spanning network of linked relays operating through branches all through the various Timelines which controlled everyone and everything that existed throughout the whole of Mortal creation. The computer would often allow and sometimes even mandate these alterations as a part of its own self-correcting Virtual Framework, like Anti-Viral software that found and repaired little problems that kept cropping up throughout the timefield. If not for this flexible function-which could cast entire Universes into the Limbo-state of "Virtual Paralysis," replacing them with new and "improved" versions, the system might bog down and crash with entropy all but assured for the whole of the Multiverse. The Gods, being functions of Yggdrasil itself, could be said to be carrying out the "hidden" agenda of the Ultimate Force program, thus their "meddling" with history could be tolerated...within certain reasonable limits.

The problem here, as Nabiki could define it, was that an alteration had been made in this particular Timeline by a couple of seemingly minor changes to the chronology of events...changes affected with the authorized seal of a Time Agent, altering the destiny of a world that might otherwise never on its own come into existence.

Even more disturbing, Continuum #69482317 was a direct parallel to Continuum #23759148, almost an overlap at that...the home Timeline from which Nabiki herself (Ranma, Ryonami and Gosunkugi) had all originated.

In principle one could not change the flow of a timeline to which they had directly originated...the system had so many failsafes to prevent this "Grandfather" effect from being so enacted. One could not, as the old argument held, go back in time to kill their own grandparents so that they would never have been born...doing so would create a catastrophic paradox which even Yggdrasil might find impossible to assimilate. Basically every living thing had a Quantum Signature particular to their own timeline, and that signature was keyed never to overlap, so going back to your own past was simply out of the question. Every time they traveled through the timefield they would wind up in a parallel of their past, another world with a slightly different history, perhaps as little as a micron in difference yet different enough that what one did in that past could not possibly affect one's own future. The history of one world was not fated to be entirely like that of a close double...yet there would always be enough similarities involved to make it seem as though one could alter their past and create paradoxical changes that would impact on future-present. Ranma himself had demonstrated this principle a while back when he went back to a parallel timeline and changed its eventual outcome, preventing a past incarnation of himself from marrying Akane.

But for Gosunkugi and Ryonami to attempt this, quite literally "Playing God" with a massive pair of polyhedral dice, was a gross violation of the Time Patrol standard, which held that the Multiverse must be protected against such tampering with the timefield. Granted they had merely created a new Virtual field, which meant that the timeline was not yet fixed and "Standardized." With a push of a button from her console, Nabiki could negate their handiwork and restore the Universe back to its original condition. She merely had to notify the Yggdrasil System Operators that there had been such a tempering, and the designated Relief Office in charge of such things would effect a localized systems restoration.

Nabiki actually considered doing so in punishment for her friends having dared to meddle in areas where even Gods did not tread so lightly. By rights she should have put the pair on suspension pending a full review of their recent activities by the oversight committee. An alteration, no matter how seemingly minor, could have potentially catastrophic consequences for people yet unborn, and this was not something that could be glossed over and ignored lightly...

However...

That Ryonami had risked her career doing this gave Nabiki some pause, and the idea that she had collaborated with Gosunkugi to affect a timeline alteration meant that it was no casual thing on their part but rather a careful and deliberately calculated action. That Ryonami would feel compelled to take such a risk alone fueled Nabiki's curiosity, and so she decided to call up the original Matrix review of Continuum 69482317, playing it out upon Ryonami's console in order to determine what had been the natural progress of this particular dimension.

Fifteen minutes later she shut down the program, having satisfied herself that she now knew the reason why Ryonami and Gosunkugi had resorted to such extreme tactics. She was slightly shaken upon seeing the way things had turned out for everybody on that world...it certainly was no storybook ending! In fact, it vastly exceeded the negative results of their own timeline, which by itself was cause enough (in Nabiki's estimation) to have the whole thing be terminated.

But that left the question as to what exactly Ryo-chan and Gos-kun had intended with the new timeline, and so-curiosity getting the better of her-Nabiki tuned the monitor upon the newly recreated timeline and began studying the changes in greater detail. As she watched her eyebrows started to climb a bit towards her hairline, and after a full thirty minutes of watching a younger version of herself stumble along in a "sort-of" relationship pattern with a younger version of Ranma, she finally spoke a word aloud which summarized her immediate reaction to these unexpected changes...

"BIKI?" she asked archly, "He dares to call me BIKI...?!"

Part Six.

Hearts and Wallets.

Kolhotz High School, Nerima, Japan-1992

"Well, here's the place," Nabiki announced to her somewhat reluctant companion, "First Challenge Match of our new partnership, Ranma-kun. Are you ready?"

"Yeah," the boy beside her said somewhat indifferently, "So, who am I supposed to fight?"

"Your opponent should be waiting for us right behind their gym," Nabiki said as she led the way onto the (mostly) deserted school campus, "Ryonami and her counterparts set everything up, so with the bets that we've laid on both sides should make this a very profitable evening. Just try not to lose, okay?"

"I never lose," Ranma said confidently, "I just hope this guy's got some skill or this could get pretty boring."

"I'll remind you that you said that later," Nabiki smiled, "This guy is supposed to be pretty good, almost undefeated, like you. Just hold your judgement until you see him in action, okay? No sense getting cocky..."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah..." he grumbled acidly, wondering how he had let himself be talked into doing this. It wasn't like he WANTED to fight for money...in fact, just by doing so he was compromising on his code of Bushido.

But he had given his word to Nabiki, and that meant more to Ranma than it ever would to his no-account father. He still had some pride in himself as a martial artist despite living like a hermit for ten years, so he followed her around behind the Kolhotz gymnasium, where they found a sizeable number of students were already gathered. A quick scan turned up his prospective opponent, and right away Ranma began to feel severely disappointed.

The guy didn't look like too much, at least to Ranma's personal estimation. Good looking, sure, if you went in for that kind of thing, but much too smug and cocky looking, and a bit condescending the way he looked Ranma over, as if trying to decide if he were a joke or a real opponent. Ranma was having much the same problem, seeing how slender and lean the boy before him was, not at all as rangy in his build as Ranma himself, almost as though he might blow away in a good strong headwind.

There was another girl standing slightly beside this boy who nodded to Nabiki, and then the two of them confronted one another in a business-like manner, clearly the ones who had organized this pending encounter.

"Is he the one?" the other girl asked Nabiki.

"See anyone else with me?" Nabiki responded before nodding to the skinny boy, "And he's your fighter?"

"Yamashina Kensuke," the girl replied, "Undefeated champion in free-form competition. I assume your man is a specialist in his own Ryu?"

"Saotome Ranma," Nabiki replied, "Of the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts."

"Charming," the girl flashed a smile at Ranma that had no actual warmth before she turned back to Nabiki and said, "Any rules you want to agree to in advance?"

"Just that this is a friendly match, not a fight to the death or anything like that," Nabiki replied, "The one who concedes loses."

"Agreed," the other girl replied, "Did you bring the money?"

Nabiki held up a wad of bills that she was carrying on her person, "Here's our stake, now show me yours."

The other girl flashed a matching wad of bills, then the two of them combined their stakes together, laying the pile down under a brick before each stepped back and turned to their respective fighters.

"Ready to start, Ranma?" Nabiki asked him in an even tone of voice.

Ranma nodded, "Let's do it."

"I'm more than ready," the other boy said, the both of them watching each other as their respective lady-friends stepped away to give them room enough for fighting.

Ranma instantly fell into a ready stance and said, "Anytime your ready to get pounded, guy."

The other boy simply smiled, "My name is Yamashina Kensuke, Master of Anything Goes Martial Arts Nail Biting."

Ranma blinked, "Nail biting? You call that a martial art?"

"My family specialty," Kensuke replied, "Trained for it all of my life."

Ranma slowly smiled before saying, "And what do you do? Stand there and bite your nails while hoping I won't hit you?"

The other boy held up a set of iron nails that were in his hand and said, "Just watch me," and like that he popped those nails into his mouth and started chewing.

Ranma stared in disbelief, Nabiki actually blinking, and then both heard the crunching noise of the nails being ground up between Kensuke's teeth, and a minute later he started spitting those nails in Ranma's direction, whizzing past the pigtailed martial artist with a speed closely approaching that of a bullet.

"HEY!" Ranma cried as he frantically dodged the pellet-like attacks, "What are you trying to do?"

"Nail you," Kensuke replied before spitting out more nail fragments, forcing Ranma on the defensive as those nail fragments hissed right past him at such a rate that they were singing the air and even came close a few times to actually scoring a hit. Ranma managed to stay one step ahead of the nail fragments, but it was clear that Ranma would run out of stamina at the pace that he was setting long before the other boy could run out of nail fragments.

Nabiki was watching with vary round eyes when the other girl, Rokaku, smiled back and her and said, "Don't worry, your boyfriend won't be too badly hurt, but Ken-kun will keep him on his toes for a bit before bringing him down nice and easy. He does this sort of thing all of the time, you'll see..."

Nabiki bristled slightly but refrained from correcting the girl's impression, though silently she recited a now-familiar line to herself, (He is NOT my boyfriend...)

Said conviction was severely put to the test a few moments later when Ranma was suddenly backed up to the wall of the gymnasium with no where to dodge as Kensuke pinned him down by rapid nail-spitting that went to the right or the left of his opponent. Nabiki felt the uncharacteristic urge to call out Ranma's name when she saw him run back up against the wall of the gym itself, and then all at once he kicked off and rocketed towards Kensuke, his hand flashing forward in a punch to the gut that caught his foe off-guard so that Kensuke spat out a mouthful of ground-up nails that impacted with the gymnasium wall...and then caused a section to collapse inward.

Ranma backed away as Kensuke doubled over from the hit, the fight taking a momentary pause as Ranma assessed whether or not his opponent could continue the action.

"You have enough?" he asked, "That trick don't work if you can't hit your target, Buddy."

"Granted," Kensuke straightened out, smiling in spite of being winded, "You're tougher than I'm used to...but I'm not licked yet...Whipcord Attack!"

"Wha-?" Ranma barely had time to react as Kensuke spun about and whipped one leg out in his direction, causing Ranma to instinctively back away as he had not expected such a tight spinning kick to all but explode from his surprisingly fast opponent.

Kensuke used the moment to propel himself backwards, getting another set of nails between his teeth then landing with his mouth cocked and loaded. He spat out more nails, this time forcing Ranma to become airborne as metal pieces whipped past him like shotgun pellets. In an incredible display of aerial acrobatics Ranma landed directly behind his opponent, only to receive a sharp kick from behind that again caught Ranma by surprise, this time connecting and propelling him backwards.

Kensuke was ready to fire off another mouthful of nail bits, but this time Ranma caught himself in a handstand and propelled himself upward, rocketing a full two stories into the air and surprising the other boy, who made the mistake of inhaling in his astonishment, which in turn got a bit of nail down the wrong windpipe and caused him to break off another attack for several seconds of hacking and choking noises.

Ranma alighted on his feet, prepared to go on the defensive again as he studied his doubled-over opponent, then in concern he asked, "Hey Guy, are you all right?"

Kensuke managed to dislodge the last bits of nail from his mouth, then turned an unpleasant smile in Ranma's direction. Rather than surrender, though, the boy just straightened up and said, "That was my fault...didn't expect you were this good. Now I'm really going to pull out the stops to take you out."

"Whatever," Ranma said, "But doesn't swallowing metal like that, y'know, kind of hurt?"

"I've had training," Kensuke replied, then crossed his arms in front of his body and summoned up his Chi before crying aloud, "ULTIMATE ATTACK-RAGE OF THE METALSTORM!" and literally whirled into action.

"Hey-what...?" Ranma reacted as the other boy plowed into him in a flashing series of tightly wound punches and kicks that were fired off in rapid succession, forcing Ranma to dance a defensive weave as he dodged each blow in rapid order. As fast as the punches were he had no chance to mount a counter-  
offensive and had to give ground before the relentless fury of Kensuke.

"What is that?" Nabiki gasped.

"Kensuke's ultimate attack style," her counterpart explained, "It's almost impossible to penetrate or block all of his shots, and he can keep it going like that for quite a while. Your boyfriend's good, but he won't get the better of Kensuke-chan this time around."

Nabiki bristled a little, but rather than display her irritation, she decided to turn the question back on the other girl, "So...you sweet on your Kensuke-chan?"

"Not really," she explained, "My name is Yamashina Aido, and Kensuke is my older brother."

Nabiki formed a round "Oh" with her mouth even as Ranma was getting tired of being a human punching bag for his opponent. All at once he vaulted into the air once again, causing Kensuke to break off his attack in order to prepare his defenses, but he had lunged just a little too far, having tired himself with the onslaught, and he misjudged the angle of Ranma's leap so that the pig-tailed boy wound up directly above him in an inverted position, and before Kensuke could raise his defenses he found the fists of Ranma were raining down on him with gravity doing the rest, a few blows getting past the other boy's guard and opening him up enough that a final blow could solidly connect against his skull.

Kensuke was driven to his knees by the hammer-blow even as Ranma moved behind him and rapidly fired off a series of lightning attacks to various pressure centers, stepping back only when his opponent began to topple forward.

"Now have you had enough?" Ranma asked, "C'mon man, don't make me really have to hurt you..."

"I...yield..." Kensuke reluctantly groaned, sitting up and rubbing his head, "Man, what did you hit me with? It felt like a giant wooden mallet or something..."

"Huh?" Ranma blinked, "What the heck's that supposed to mean?"

Kensuke blinked, "I...don't really know...just popped into mind for some strange reason..."

Aido sighed, making a faintly disgusted noise, to which Nabiki just smiled at her and said, "Satisfied?"

"Yeah, the money's yours," the other girl said reluctantly, "Good fight...wasn't expecting your boyfriend to be that good."

Nabiki's face twitched slightly as she fought off the urge to correct the impression that Ranma was HER boyfriend...deciding that gathering up her money took precedence, even as Aido went and began to circulate among the crowd, collecting other bets no doubt laid down as a back up contingency on her part.

Ranma offered his hand to Kensuke and said, "Man, what was that thing you were doing just now? It looked like you were coming right out of your center..."

"Something my grandfather taught me a while ago," Kensuke replied, "I tighten up my body and fire off punches and kicks using my body to generate a whipcord action. It's kind of like a combination of Chi-burst and centrifugal force, and most of the time it's pretty effective. Never saw anyone dodge as fast as you did, though, and that thing you did at the end, coming down at me from above...I'm gonna have to remember that one..."

"Saotome Ryu is mostly an airborne attack style of Kempo," Ranma replied, "Gotta say, though, that whipcord thing you used is might impressive."

"Maybe we can have another rematch some time," Kensuke thrust out his hand for a shake, "After we both train for it, huh?"

"Sounds good to me," Ranma said, accepting the shake, "I'm still gonna win, though for a skinny guy you're pretty quick yourself."

"And you're faster than I took you to be," Kensuke noted, only to pause as he caught something out of the corner of his eye, then tensed a bit and frowned saying, "Uh oh...don't look now but here comes Senzenen."

"Who?" Ranma turned to see a handsome boy approaching from the sidelines, the women he passed all but swooning in his presence, though the brashly self-  
satisfied expression he wore set Ranma's nerve on edge, even as his combat instincts flared to warning.

"Senzenen Mikado at your service," the boy bowed slightly, somehow managing to make the gesture seem condescending, "And I must agree that you do have a few interesting moves there...Saotome Ranma was it?"

"That's my name," Ranma bristled somewhat, even as he saw Kensuke's eyes narrow into slits as he eyed his fellow Kolhotz student, "What's it to you?"

Nabiki-who had been feeling slightly ill at the back-and-forth compliments between Ranma and his recent opponent-turned a curious look the boy's way and seemed to frown ever-so-slightly, though when Mikado turned to her she was taken by surprise at the charm he displayed in her direction.

"Nothing much, other than I wanted to bestow my favors to this charming lady who accompanied you onto our humble campus," Mikado replied as he ignored Ranma and focused on Nabiki, "Such loveliness deserves attention, and to what do we owe the wondrous favor of your most delicate, presence fair Lady? Surely you are not attached to this uncultured boor who is surely unworthy of your favors?"

"Hey!" Ranma scowled, only to feel Kensuke place a hand to his shoulder in order to restrain him.

Nabiki eyed the handsome boy as he took her hand in his own and sought to kiss it, wondering if she should raise a fuss about it or play along with his advances. Mikado just smiled and took her non-commitment as an invitation as he bent to kiss her fingers, only to feel a rude shove as Ranma pushed past Kensuke and placed himself in the space between Mikado and Nabiki.

"Back off, Clown!" Ranma declared rather hotly, "She ain't for you, so why don't you beat it?"

"You would challenge me?" Mikado seemed amused by the offer, "Surely not, it would be most unsportsmanlike on my part for me to take advantage of one who lacks the finesse and skill of a true Martial Arts master..."

"Are you trying to be funny? Ranma demanded, "Can't you see you're making Nabiki sick?"

"Nabiki is it?" Mikado replied, shifting his focus from her towards Ranma, "Surely you are not challenging me for her sake? I only wish to pay my respects to such a charming and sophisticated lady..."

"Well do it from over there," Ranma said flatly, "She's with me, you got it? And even if you don't, there ain't no way I'm letting you get near to Nabiki."

"You wish to challenge me for her hand?" Mikado replied, "Surely even an ignorant peasant like yourself must see that you are outclassed before me. No...I can plainly tell that she is not a woman who wants to be bound to an ignorant fool such as yourself and..."

Ranma's fist shot up so fast that the other boy didn't even have time to blink, but though he struck Senzenen cleanly under his chin the other boy merely staggered back a few steps while the women in the audience gasped and the boys held their breath in wordless anticipation.

"Ranma?" Nabiki thought that gesture uncalled for, but she could sense how angry Ranma was as his aura almost seemed to be rippling in waves that startled her. No way could this be for her benefit...did Ranma honestly believe that she was the kind of girl who could fall for the none-too-subtle charms of such an obvious rake? She didn't know whether to be touched or insulted!

"You shouldn't have done that," Kensuke murmured in belated dull warning.

Senzenen felt his jaw then said, "Absurd. You would do battle with Senzenen Mikado? Surely you must have a death wish to so brazenly challenge me in such a way..."

"Shut up," Ranma growled, "You think you're man enough to take me? Go right ahead!"

Mikado only smiled, "Very well, you shall have your match, but not here and not now. One week from today at the Sporting Arena...I trust you know how to ice skate?"

"Ice skate?" Ranma raised both of his eyebrows.

"Anything Goes Martial Arts Rhythmic Ice Skating," Mikado replied, "I fight with my partner, so I will assume that your lovely companion will be with you during the match? If she skates as well as she is lovely then my reward will be a kiss...my one thousandth kill of a lovely thing to date..."

"What?" Ranma blinked, "You've got to be kidding!"

"Afraid not," Kensuke warned him, "Mikado is one half of the legendary Golden Pair, the undefeated champions of Martial Arts Ice Skating, and you've just challenged him to fight in his element."

"One half of a pair?" Ranma repeated, "Then who's the other...?"

"Michelle, Michelle!" cried a curly brown haired girl as she snatched Nabiki's ledger book from her hand and spun around with it.

"HEY!" Nabiki cried, "Give that back!"

"No!" the girl haughtily declared, clutching the ledger booklet to her bosom while turning up her nose to Nabiki, "Michelle belongs to Azusa-chan! You cannot take it from Azusa!"

"It doesn't belong to you!" Nabiki made an attempt to snatch it away from the girl, but she easily darted around several fellow students while taunting Nabiki with a tongue protruding. In frustration Nabiki cried, "Ranma-get it!"

"Why do I have to do everything?" he growled, but no sooner did he take two steps forward then Mikado beat him to Azusa's side, snatched the ledger from the girl's hands then give her a stern look before turning and handing it back to Nabiki.

"My apologies," the handsome boy remarked, "My partner doesn't seem to understand the concept of leaving the possessions of the other side alone. She's in the habit of taking things and giving them cute French names while pretending that they belong to her. Please forgive her rude behavior and accept my most sincere apologies."

Nabiki accepted her ledger back with a polite-but-wary expression, "Quite all right, no harm done and-AWP!"

"Give it back!" the frilly haired girl demanded as she tried to reach around Mikado, who kept himself firmly between his partner and Nabiki, "Give Michelle back! It belongs to Azusa!"

"As I was saying," Mikado resumed, "It was unfortunate for my partner here to try and take what does not belong to her, but if you will accept my humble petition-OW!"

"Give it back, give it back!" the demented Azusa demanded, beating Mikado over the head with her school bag.

"As I was attempting to say-!" Mikado got no further in ignoring the lacy girl behind him because Azusa all at once picked up a stone bench and smashed it over him, pinning him to the ground and effectively ending his attempted seduction.

"Wow," Ranma was frankly impressed, "She must be pretty strong for a complete loony."

"It's a mistake to take Shiratori Azusa lightly on account of her cutesy personality," Kensuke advised, "Are you really going to challenge the Golden Pair to a skating competition?"

"I guess," Ranma shrugged, "Are they any good?"

Kensuke just looked pityingly upon the pigtailed boy, "You don't know? They're the best in the whole world, undefeated in all their matches. And who are you going to get for a skating partner...for that matter, are you any good yourself on skates?"

"Uh...well..." Ranma shrugged, "I could learn."

Upon hearing this Aido brightened then promptly turned around and cried, "Place your bets here, ladies and germs! The unknown challenger against the Golden Pair of Kolhotz High School!"

"Ranma!" Nabiki called out a bit frantically as she tried to keep her ledger book away from Azusa, who was all but pawing her to get at it.

"Ooops, gotta run, seeya around!" Ranma said as he turned and scooped Nabiki up into his arms, then vaulted over the gymnasium, leaving Azusa behind blinking her eyes in amazement.

Minutes later as Ranma and Nabiki were walking home from their challenge match the former took notice of the silent treatment that the latter was giving him, which prompted him to say, "All right, now what did I do wrong?"

"Baka," Nabiki murmured with no real heat, "You just like that accepted a challenge match against the greatest skaters in the world...and you HAD to involve me in it, didn't you? Do you even know how to skate?"

"Well..." Ranma shrugged, "Not really. It's never been big on my training, but if it's got martial arts in it, I'm sure I can pick it up in no time."

Nabiki groaned and rolled her eyes, "Remind me not to bet on you...no-scratch that-I'm a part of the stakes, remember?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ranma scowled, "Don't tell me you'd LIKE to kiss that stuck-up dandy?"

"Oho...and is that a note of jealousy which I do detect, Saotome?" Nabiki countered with an arched expression.

"Jealous?" Ranma bristled, "Of him? No way! I just can't stand stuck-up bastards who think they're hot stuff around the ladies. Don't forget, I know what it feels like to have jerks like that coming onto you...unless you really do want him to kiss you."

Nabiki stifled her own response to this charge, sullenly glancing down while conceding the point as recent events with Kuno Tatewaki had clearly made Ranma more than a wee bit touchy on this particular subject.

"I don't want him to kiss me, Ranma," Nabiki replied honestly, "Senzenen has a reputation, we've even heard about him at Furinkan. He's like a serial kisser, it doesn't mean anything to him but another notch on his belt, and I'm nobody's notch. If it's all the same I'd just as soon not become a new addition to his fan club."

"Well, you don't have anything to worry then," Ranma smiled, "I won that last match, right? I'll do the same when I knock that Mikado guy flat on his but next week."

"Oh really?" Nabiki smiled as she eyed him sidelong, "Care to put your money where your mouth is, Saotome?"

"Uh..." Ranma always got nervous when he heard her talk like that. Just being around Nabiki for a couple of weeks had taught him to keep one hand firmly paused next to his wallet when she gave him that cute-but-oh-so-smug expression...

One hour later he was being treated to another of Nabiki's patented arsenal of sardonic expressions, her deadly "I told you so" smirk of superior condescension.

"Maybe we ought to rethink our strategy here," Nabiki mused after Ranma fell on his face for the third straight time since they had come to the sporting arena and rented out two pairs of skates, "Maybe you should wait until Senzenen laughs himself to death then tap him on a sleep point, that ought to make you the winner by default."

"Very funny," Ranma tried to push himself upright, only to fall down again with a "wuff!" followed by a hesitant, "Um...a little help here?"

Nabiki just covered her eyes and said, "We've got our work cut out for us if we're going to face Senzenen in a week. How do you expect to fight if you can't even stand on your own two feet, Ranma?"

"I'll manage," Ranma tried to force himself off of the ice but found that he could barely attempt a sitting position, "Hey, this is harder than it looks, give me a break already..."

"How is it you can walk calmly on the top part of a railing without falling but you can't even balance yourself on your skates?" Nabiki sighed, "I must be out of my mind letting myself get dragged into this. It's only going to make matters worse for the both of us, Saotome..."

"Oh yeah?" Ranma asked, "Like...how?"

"For one thing," Nabiki sighed, "It's going to reinforce the idea that the two of us are a couple. You saw the way those students took it for granted that you were my boyfriend, right? Well, coming to my aid and standing up to Mikado just proved their point! They don't know you like I do, Saotome, how old fashioned you are with your notions of chivalry, or that you'd have done the same thing it if was Akane who Senzenen was threatening to kiss."

"Are you nuts?" Ranma snapped, "If he tried to kiss her I'd just sit back and eat popcorn! You know what that macho Tomboy sister of yours would do to any guy who tried to take advantage of her..."

"Yes, but that's not the point," Nabiki sighed, "I thought we had an understanding, Saotome, an agreement that we were going to cool this fianc e business and treat each other like business associates. I don't need for you to start acting like a caveman every time some boy tries to take liberties with me. I've been fending them off for most of my life..."

"Yeah," Ranma said, "By charging them for time and services. C'mon Nabiki, you really think a guy like that is gonna take 'No' for an answer?"

"And that gives you the right to appoint yourself as my defender?" Nabiki challenged.

"You didn't seem to mind when you asked me to help get you away from that Azusa creep," Ranma countered.

"That's...different," Nabiki wavered a bit then decided to try changing tactics, "So...you really think I'm weak and helpless that you have to defend me, is that it?"

"Yeah, like a rattler," Ranma countered.

Nabiki pouted, "I guess you really don't have much respect for me if you think I need your help that badly. Well, then I guess I'll just have to leave you here to continue your practice..."

She started to turn around, hiding her smile as she heard him frantically say, "Hey-wait up a minute, Nabiki! At least help me get back to the edge of the rink, okay?"

Nabiki half turned and regarded him coolly, "I think what you need is a little motivation to stand up on your own, Saotome. Maybe I should go find Mikado and ask him if he could give you some special lessons..."

"Mikado?" Ranma curled his lip in distaste, "I'd sooner eat tofu!"

"Do you have a better idea?" Nabiki asked, "I'll tell you what, Akane's a pretty good skater, I could ask her to clue you in with a few lessons..."

"Are you nuts?" Ranma snorted, "The day I need her help in training..."

"...Is the day when little kids can laugh at the Great Saotome Ranma and say, 'There goes a real weakling...'"

"YOU TAKE THAT BACK!" Ranma surged to his feet in a fit of towering rage, "If you weren't a girl, I'd...!"

"Yes?" Nabiki asked ever-so-sweetly, turning around to fully confront him.

"I'd...I'd..." Ranma faltered, finding their faces only a few centimeters apart, which effectively broke his concentration and banished his anger, "Uh..."

"Now that wasn't so hard, was it?" Nabiki asked drolly, "I knew you just needed the right kind of motivation to get out of your slump."

"Huh?" Ranma blinked, then looked down, discovering that he was standing upright on the ice, and without apparent effort.

"Now all you have to do is learn how to stand like that when you're calm..." Nabiki started to say, when-with a loud "WHOOOP!" Ranma went tumbling back onto the ice, which prompted her to add, "Or...maybe not..."

"Having problems?" someone asked, surprising both Ranma and Nabiki.

Both heads swerved to see Kensuke and Aido standing slightly off to the side there, both in skating outfits and matching pairs of skates. The boy was looking far more sympathetically at Ranma than his sister, who could not help grinning from ear-to-ear as if confirmed in her own suspicions.

"What do you want?" Ranma asked.

"Nothing much," Kensuke replied, "But it looks to me like you two are having a little trouble..."

"We can handle ourselves, thanks," Ranma assured them.

"Is that what you believe?" Kensuke shifted his focus from Ranma to Nabiki, "I hear the odds are pretty high against you two, even with Aido giving you a handicap. I figure we might pull in a lot more bet money if the two of you were a more competitive threat to Mikado."

"Are you offering to help us?" Nabiki was instantly on guard and suspicious.

"I'm offering, if you want the help," Kensuke inclined his head, "Mind you, I don't give you much chance of learning to skate well enough to defeat Mikado in a week, but I'd sure as hell like to see somebody take that smug bastard down a peg or two, and so would a lot of other guys on our school. He may be the class champion, but he's a world class heel and a lecher, and he kissed my little sister here without even asking her permission."

"Plus," Aido spoke up, "You're not the only ones who think that Shiratori Azusa is a few tapes short of an OAV series. Most of the cute guys in our school are absolutely in love with the little twerp, and they won't even object when she steals something else belonging to us and gives it a cute French name, adding it to her collection."

"Sounds like you got a beef," Ranma nodded.

"Worse than you think," Kensuke's tone suddenly dropped to an iciness that made the floor of the skating rink seem sunny, "Aido and I competed against the Golden Pair once...it's nothing less than a miracle that Aido wasn't more seriously hurt. I was in a hospital bed for a week, so...yeah...you could say I've got a score to settle with that bastard."

"Hmmm..." Nabiki inclined her head then spoke to Ranma, "What do you think?"

"Me?" Ranma said, "I thought you were the one who insists on doing all the thinking."

"That's because I'm better at it than you," Nabiki replied, "And someone has to do the thinking around here. All right...you think you can actually help me to get Ranma-kun here up to speed, at least so he doesn't totally humiliate himself by next week?"

"That's a pretty tall order," Kensuke replied, "And with anyone else I'd say no...but if I judge him by the way he fought against me, we could actually give Mikado a good run for his money."

Nabiki smiled and extended her hand to Aido, "Shake on it and we have a verbal contract."

"Such a pleasure doing business with a professional," Aido replied, and from the way the two girls smiled it was clear enough to anyone that they were kindred spirits...

A few hours later Ranma was limping away from the sporting arena looking like he'd just slammed into a wall repeatedly, while Nabiki herself was looking a bit ragged.

"Good training, huh?" Ranma asked in surprisingly good spirits.

"I guess," Nabiki replied, wincing a bit at some of her own tired muscles, "Is it always this tough for you?"

"Welcome to my world," Ranma sniffed, "It's like Pop always says, that which doesn't kill you can make you a better martial artist."

"I didn't know your Dad read Nitzche," Nabiki mused.

"Are you kidding?" Ranma grinned, "He can't even spell it..."

"Excuse me," someone asked close nearby, "Can you tell me the way to Furinkan High School?"

"Huh?" both Ranma and Nabiki turned as one to see who it was that had spoken.

"Uh, sure thing, Kid," a passing man replied to a strange looking wild boy, pointing down the road a ways, "Just a few blocks over there and to your right, you can't miss it."

"Thanks," said a dark haired boy who wore a tiger-striped bandana and had a strange ensemble, a long-sleeved yellow shirt and baggy olive green pants that were tied at the bottom with ropes, a boy who also had a large backpack strapped to his torso, one that had a bamboo umbrella slung across the top.

As they registered all of this the boy casually turned around and walked in the direction opposite from where the man he'd been asking was pointing.

"Hey, are you crazy?" that man asked, "You're going in the wrong direction!"

The boy just ignored him and continued walking off and way from Furinkan High School.

"What the heck was that all about?" Nabiki wondered.

"I don't know," Ranma frowned, "Something awfully familiar about that guy...it's almost like I'd met him somewhere before..."

"I thought you remembered everything," Nabiki teased.

"Usually I do," Ranma continued to frown, then shrugged his shoulders, "Aw, what the heck, if it's important it'll probably come back to me. Let's get home...first one there gets to hop into the furo."

"Oh?" Nabiki mused, "And I suppose you don't go in for both sexes sharing a bath together?"

"Huh?" Ranma abruptly colored, "Hey, cut it out! That's not funny?"

"That's because you can't see your own expression right now, Saotome," Nabiki turned back to face forward, oddly feeling in a better mood already as she added in an offbeat tone, "At least this has been a profitable day, and the more so when I get done figuring up the bets at school."

"Won't you need your ledger for that?" Ranma asked, adding slyly, "You do still have it, right?"

"Huh?" Nabiki blinked, then reflexively slapped the place where she normally kept her account log on her person, only to see Ranma holding it up for her with a smug expression. She snatched it back and gave him a sour look before adding, "Smarty-pants...maybe I really will join you in the furo..."

"W-What?" Ranma paled, "Why would you want to do that?"

"Well after all, I am still technically both your manager and iinazuke, right?" Nabiki grinned as she twisted the knife, "That makes it all right if I see you naked, and even Kasumi can't call it improper."

Ranma firmly shut his mouth and avoided saying the first thing which sprang into his mind, knowing full well that Nabiki might well carry out her threat if he accused her of bluffing, and that...that...might...not be such a good idea, he silently thought...maybe...

For Nabiki's part she wondered where that last brazen comment had come from. Would she really expose herself naked in front of Ranma just to tease him? The thought did have its...curious temptations...but then she firmly squashed down on the idea. That might just give him the wrong idea, and they were both firmly resolved to put an end to this fianc e business...right?

Thus mutually confused, the both of them were silent all the way back to the Tendo dojo, all too aware of one another and yet tacitly agreed not to further deepen the issue of just what really lay behind their partnership, each suspecting in their own way that they might not know how to handle the answer...

Continued.

Comments/Criticisms/Kolhotz Azusa Hotline: shadowmane

Next time up Ranma and Nabiki go skating while Akane meets a curious lost boy and starts to get ideas about how to "liven things up" for her sister and her fianc e. Be with us for this and other disasters in, "Close Shaves Without a Razor," or "Dancing the Light Shiratori!" Be there!

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If you wish to check out my other works, Please check out my Fanfiction webpage at: . All related chapters of this series can be found there along with my other works. 


	7. Chapter 7

RanHearts07

The Horse and Butterfly

By Jim Robert Bader

(Inspired by the works of Rumiko Takahashi &amp; Others)

Chapter Seven.

Skating on the Edge

Akane sighed, her mood hardly lightened by her recent visit to Doctor Tofu's clinic. She had thought she had found the perfect excuse to pay him a visit...the returning of a book that Kasumi had borrowed from his personal library. Surely he could have said thank you or at the very least notice her for delivering the book in person, but all it took was for the doctor to be reminded of Kasumi and his glasses immediately fogged up, then he went into his befuddled act, behaving like a loon and even shredding the very book that Akane had just delivered. It really was quite phenomenal and depressing how such a normally calm and together man could go all to pieces just thinking about her sister...

Not that she could blame him, of course. Akane knew full well that Kasumi had all of the qualities that she personally lacked as a woman, being tall, beautiful and quite capable as both a housewife and a possible mother. Any man who noticed her would be a fool to consider anyone else as a girlfriend, let alone a young schoolgirl who lacked many feminine talents, and besides which she was violent and clumsy and a bit of a tomboy...and other non-feminine things that nice guys like Doctor Tofu could not possibly want to like...

She sighed again, more depressed than ever, especially when she contrasted her non-relationship with the man she admired against the budding affair that was developing between a boy she found incredibly annoying (and could stand to be around without getting violent) and her older-middle sister, a relationship so subtle that even the principle participants seemed oblivious to the full implications.

Not that she expected any thaw in the ice to happen too soon between those two. Ranma was coarse and crude, typifying many of the things she found most annoying in the male sex, while Nabiki prided herself on being the opposite of this, well-read and considerably more lady-like than Akane...which only just barely masked her predatory inclinations. It was surprising that she got along as well as she did with Ranma, whose table manners and speech were just this shy of totally barbaric, and given that Ranma was as impulsive and headstrong as he was conceited, it looked well as if Nabiki would have her hands full just cultivating the more rudimentary manners in her iinazuke. Now, if she could only break him of the habit of saying whatever came to mind, then Akane might well learn to be civil around him and not have to break any furniture over his head just to get him to be quiet...

...Which, of course, did beg the question that was puzzling Akane in other respects, namely why their fathers were so intent on there being a Saotome/Tendo marriage in the first place? Simply uniting the two halves of the Anything Goes school hardly seemed like an adequate reason in Akane's mind for effectively selling two of their children into the bonds of marriage, and Akane did not know which half to be the more pitied in this affair, Ranma or her sister.

"Huh," she said aloud as she thought on it some more, "Those two deserve each other if ever anyone did. Serves Nabiki right for always exploiting everybody she comes in contact like they were a resource. Bet she'll have her hands full playing manager to that ill-bred baka..."

Of course the diversion this provided her could only last so long until she started thinking once again about her no-way relationship with Doctor Tofu. She sighed again as she thought about how she might come across to him if she ever did work up the courage to reveal her true feelings. He would probably say she was suffering from a schoolgirl crush and attempt to let her down gently, and Akane would be crushed if that were to happen. She wanted to be taken seriously, like a mature and independent woman. If only she could seem more mature to Tofu-Sensei...she had thought growing her hair long, like Kasumi's, might do the trick, but so far she had not seen any reaction or even a token notice by Tofu-chan that she was no longer the mere child whom he had nursed for years. Instead the man had eyes only for Kasumi, who hardly seemed to notice the baka way that he behaved whenever she was in his presence.

"Yeah," she murmured to herself again, "Some great hope that is...that Kasumi won't notice forever. Sooner or later she's going to get a clue, and then..."

And then it would be all over. Kasumi would have but to nod her head and smile at him and she would have Tofu as her own forever.

"What is wrong with those two?" she wondered aloud for the umpteenth time, her exasperation and melancholy only deepening the longer she brooded on this topic, "Sure, Kasumi can be a little fuzzy on noticing some details, and she's never seen the Doctor when she's not around, so..."

So, maybe there was a slight chance that Tofu's one-way infatuation might not amount to anything, in which case Akane could still pick him up on the rebound.

"That's right!" she declared, "I can't give up hope yet...there's still a chance, and maybe in another year or so..." she sighed, deflated as her brief attempt at rallying her spirits flagged under the weight of her own self-doubts, "Yeah...right, and maybe I'll meet a really decent guy my own age...like that would ever happen..."

"Damn you, Ranma! This is all your fault!"

Akane blinked. Those had definitely NOT been her words, though they sounded like something that she might have delivered on a different topic. She turned and saw immediately a young man, roughly her own age, standing some meters away looking lost, confused and frustrated, which-added to his overall appearance-  
-gave him the aspect of a wild boy from the countryside who had just gotten himself lost in the big city.

"Excuse me?" Akane asked, surprising said boy, who had not noticed her until she had spoken.

"Uh...never mind," he responded, then he hesitated a second before asking, "By the way...can you tell me how to get to Furinkan High School?"

"Huh?" Akane reacted in surprise at the unexpected request.

"I need to get to Furinkan High School," the boy repeated, "It's very important. I have to meet someone there, so can you tell me where it is?"

"Oh...sure," Akane replied, "I go there, but it's after hours and there won't be anyone about. Why do you want to get to Furinkan?"

"It's...personal," the boy balled his fists and his expression was briefly less human, more bestial as his eyes focused on something else besides her and he revealed very pronounced canines as he fought his anger down, "I need to find someone...it's a matter of honor."

"Ranma?" Akane asked, taking a stab at a really obvious notion, and was rewarded by seeing the anger be replaced with surprise in the unknown boy's expression.

"How did you know?" he asked.

"You were shouting his name out very loudly a minute ago," Akane tactfully pointed out.

"Oh," he duly noted, "Well...yeah...his name is Ranma...Saotome Ranma, and when I find him I'm going to kill him..."

"Do tell?" Akane only slightly evidenced surprise over this, knowing enough about Ranma by now to consider this response not entirely out of the question, "What did he do to you to make you feel like that?"

"It's...it's personal, okay?" the boy said somewhat sullenly, then glanced away and in more deferential tones explained, "I knew him a few years ago...when he broke a man-to-man promise. Since that day I've been seeking him out to avenge my honor, and when the day of retribution is at hand..."

"Okay, I got it," Akane said, "So he did something to upset you a lot, huh? Sounds pretty much like the baka..."

The boy turned a questioning look back her way, "Do you know him?"

"Hey, it's not by choice, believe me," Akane replied, "He's rude, coarse, stuck-  
up and he calls me a Tomboy..."

"He does?" the other boy blinked again, then frowned, "That sounds like the Ranma I knew..."

"By the way," Akane brightened, "My name is Tendo Akane, who are you?"

"Oh..." the boy looked momentarily chagrined, "I'm sorry...I forget myself sometimes. It's Hibiki...Hibiki Ryoga."

"Hibiki Ryoga?" Akane thought the name somehow appropriate. It made him sound like a thundering mountain, and from the way he moved she could tell he had training in the martial arts, "Well, it's nice to meet you, Ryoga."

"Thank you," he said politely, bowing to her slightly before adding, "Now, if you will excuse me, Miss Tendo, I have to go find and kill Ranma..."

"Call me Akane," she said with a pleasant smile that was as natural as her instinctive liking for the boy's polite manners, "Miss Tendo makes me feel like my older sister."

"Oh...ah..." he rubbed a hand to the back of his head and said, "You sure you won't mind? I mean...we only just met and all..."

Right off the spot Akane felt like getting down on her knees and kissing the ground. At last...she had finally met a boy who didn't slobber all over her or drool like a pig and wasn't "checking her out" with his eyes. In fact there was a sense that this was a boy who would never dream of acting improperly towards any girl, which made her feel a lot "safer" around him than she would with a drooling idiot like Kuno. If anything his self-effacing manner was a very cute contrast from the blunt impoliteness of a certain aquasexually challenged Hentai whom she could mention...

"Sure I won't mind," Akane said, "In fact, I'll even show you the way to Furinkan. It's just a few blocks from here, you can't miss it."

"Why...thank you," the boy said, "I don't know what to say. So few people want to be helpful these days, they always keep pointing me in the wrong direction."

"People can be cruel," Akane sympathized, "Just follow me, then you can tell me all about why you want to kill Ranma."

She did not add that there were times when she felt like killing the baka herself, but that she refrained from further violence out of respect for Nabiki, reasoning that if anyone had the right to kill her own iinazuke, it would be her mercenary sister. In fact she wanted to know if there were a way of cooling down the other boy's wrath for that very same reason, though she was beginning to suspect that the truth-if fully revealed-would doubtless make her feel a little vengeful in regards to a jerk like Saotome Ranma...

"Oh man," Ranma groaned as he sat down to eat his sundae, "I am so starving! Training's hard work on an empty stomach, you know..."

"Do tell?" Nabiki asked dryly as she sampled her own sundae, sitting across from her iinazuke at the cafe table they had chosen inside the local malt shop, "In which case you ought to be used to the experience, considering what a bottomless pit you normally have..."

"Oh, har-har," Ranma growled acidly, "Like you're a fine one to talk about bottomless stomachs."

Nabiki froze in the act of placing her spoon into her mouth, "I beg your pardon?"

"Face it, 'Biki," he smiled as he sensed an opening, "For a girl who watches her figure as much as you do, you can't spend five minutes without putting something inside your mouth. I've been watching you for weeks now, and you're always sucking on a piece of candy or munching on a cracker or chewing on something in your mouth...which is really weird considering how I don't know where you pack it away. You're as thin as a rail, at least around the stomach..."

Nabiki carefully put her spoon back down and glared at her fianc , "Are we going to start comparing figures now, Ranma-kun? And what do you mean around my stomach?"

"Hey, you know," Ranma shrugged, "All that fat must go to your hips or something. I mean...you got a nice enough figure, but the way you eat it's a surprise to me that you don't look real bloated."

Nabiki took her time trying to decipher the meaning of that, but then a wicked impulse made her leer at him as she smiled and said, "You're saying I have a thin waist and a fat stomach, eh? And I suppose you also think I'm a bit wide around my chest, eh?"

"Huh?" Ranma blinked, "Uh...well..." he actually looked down at her then said, "You look about right there...I mean...uh...well...you curve nice, ah..."

Nabiki decided to follow up on her mischievous impulse and reached up with both hands to cup her own breasts so as to press them together and form a very visible gulf in her triangular cleavage, "You mean you like the way these look?"

Ranma's eyes got extremely round as he stared at her there, then hastily looked away with a stammered, "Ah-well-I mean..."

"Is he bothering you again, Miss?"

Nabiki glanced in annoyance at Yamashina Kensuke, who had been sitting another booth down with his sister, Aido, sharing their own lunch together. The rail-  
thin boy who had been serving as Ranma's training partner during their preparations for the big skating match was smirking in an altogether amused manner while Aido looked on coyly with a hidden smile that promised real trouble.

"No thanks," Nabiki said in mild reproof, "I can manage my own burdens."

"Sounds to me like he paid you a double compliment," Aido mused as she studied the two partners, "After all, he thinks you've got a perfect hourglass figure, and he just checked you out, which must prove that he's human after all, and I was starting to wonder..."

"Huh?" Ranma blinked, "What the heck do you...?"

"You two have been working out on the icerink every day for most of a week," Kensuke explained for his benefit, "And in that time you've had to operate in very close contact with one another, so if you didn't notice that your partner was a woman I'd really have to wonder about you."

"Hey, it ain't like that!" Ranma immediately protested, "I know Nabiki is a girl, you think I'm blind to that and I don't know she feels different when I...ah..." he paused and glanced at his iinazuke, then looked away again with a troubled expression.

"I certainly hope that you would notice that I'm female, Ranma-kun," Nabiki dryly remarked, "Considering that you also know intimately what that feels like..."

"Oh yeah?" Aido brightened, "And how do you figure that?"

"Oh, nothing, just a private joke between us, right Ranma-kun?" Nabiki favored her companion with a particularly sweet expression.

"What, does he like to dress in women's clothes or something?" Kensuke asked.

"Hey, that ain't funny!" Ranma immediately protested.

"Depends on your definition of what's funny," Nabiki said, "But you're right, it's not a laughing matter...at least not from your perspective."

"What, you mean he really does dress in women's clothing?" Aido asked.

"NO!" both Ranma and Nabiki said together.

"So, you still got secrets you're keeping to yourself, Saotome," Kensuke smiled, "Fair enough. The point is that you really are improving a lot in your skating. I gotta say, I never thought you could make this much progress..."

"Yes," Aido agreed, "And do you know how many betting pools I've had going on that? Most guys at our school bet pretty heavily that you'd get your ass whipped when you face the Golden Pair in a couple of days."

"I see," Nabiki calmly replied, "So, are you making a killing?"

"Not yet," Aido replied, "Truth to tell, I didn't think he'd get this far this soon either, but it's a long way to go before he can get close to matching Senzenen Mikado."

"Hey, I'll beat that guy, no problem," Ranma said confidently, "Now that I know how to balance and fight on the ice..."

"It takes more than that to match Mikado," Kensuke replied, "I made the same mistake that you're making now when Aido and I went up against them. He's fast, tough and tricky, and he's got a lot of moves based on breaking up couples."

"Then we have less to fear," Nabiki assured them, "Ranma-kun and I are not a couple."

"Uh-huh," Aido smiled, "Pull the other one."

"Hey, we're only engaged because our stupid parents insisted on it," Ranma snapped, "It's not like we agreed to it or nothing."

"Right," Nabiki said, "As far as Ranma-kun and I are concerned it's just a business arrangement."

"Do tell?" Aido's smile grew more predatory, "So you wouldn't mind if Mikado tries to kiss your partner, Saotome?"

"Huh?" Ranma blinked, "I thought...um..."

"Isn't that supposed to be what I concede if we lose?" Nabiki asked for him.

"You don't know Senzenen," Kensuke shook his head, "At some point early in the fight he'll try and take that kiss, and if you give him the least little opening..."

"Then you'd better pucker up and take it," Aido growled, then made a point of spitting off to one side, not caring how unfeminine a gesture this might have seemed to the other patrons.

Nabiki blinked her eyes at this while Ranma scowled then said, "He'd better nor try that while I'm around or..."

"So you do care what happens to her," Aido all but pounced, "I knew it!"

Before either Ranma or Nabiki could form a response to this they heard a disturbingly familiar (and sugary sweet) voice chime out, "Franscois! Franscois! I've found you, I've found you!"

Ranma winced while Nabiki faintly groaned and said, "What is she doing here?"

"Ever hear the one about the bad yen piece that keeps turning up when you least expect it?" Aido replied, her voice no longer insinuating amusement, "Well, there you have the human equivalent..."

"And look who's with her," Kensuke's voice dropped ten Celsius points as his expression darkened, "Mister 'Kami's gift to all Women' himself."

"Senzenen?" Ranma turned and saw the young lady-killer in question.

"Put it down, Azusa," the handsome skater was instructing his frilly-laced partner, "We're here to train, not acquire more of your nit-knacks..."

"Don't say or do nothing," Kensuke urged, "Just keep silent and hope they don't notice us..."

"Especially that twit, Azusa," Aido murmured at the level of a bare whisper.

As if on cue Mikado turned around and was about to walk right past their table, all but dragging his partner along from her latest attempted acquisition, when he paused to take stock of who was sitting there calmly sampling her ice cream. Like a hound who had sniffed the scent of the fox he turned and said, "Well now...what have we here? You do look familiar..."

"Really?" Nabiki asked without looking up, "Forgotten all about me already?"

"Hardly," Mikado smiled, "I never forget such radiant beauty when I bask within its presence. A rare flower such as you can only be appreciated when viewed at close proximity, at which point the fragrance of your aroma must draw honey bees like a swarm..."

Ranma's eyes sharply narrowed, and without half-noticing he bent his spoon between his fingers as he glared up at the smooth-talking Mikado.

Nabiki hid a cunning smile that would have done credit to a barracuda, but without looking up she said, "Such flattery must turn quite a few heads where you come from, but a girl needs more than pretty words to earn her interest."

"Oh?" Mikado asked with a raised eyebrow, "And what, pray tell, would earn your fascination, my dear?"

"Well, that all depends," Nabiki mused in a deceptively mild tone of voice, coyly noticing how Ranma looked ready to spit nails, like Kensuke, "What do you have to offer?"

"Well now," Mikado mused, "That all depends on what you're offering in return."

"Sorry," Nabiki replied, "I don't give things away for free, you know. You'd have to make me an offer first, and then I'll consider if it's worth my attention."

"How intriguing," Mikado remarked, "You pique my interest. As you know I am from a moderately wealthy family and if it were a matter of mere trinkets then I could tempt you with baubles and trifles whose worth would surely pale when compared with your..."

All at once a half-eaten bowl of ice cream was shoved into his face, causing Mikado to recoil in stunned surprise, having not anticipated such an angry gesture.

"Get lost, Creep," Ranma growled, "We don't want any."

Nabiki blinked and glanced at the anger that was smoldering in the eyes of her iinazuke, who had half risen from his seat with the look of one intending further mayhem. Kensuke and Aido backed away from their booth, sensing the impending mayhem and not wanting to be caught in the crossfire as Mikado calmly reached for a handkerchief and cleared the half-melted ice-cream that was currently obscuring his vision.

"Now was that called for?" Mikado asked with surprising calm as he cleared his eyes and looked at her assailant.

"Naw, probably not," Ranma replied as he stood facing the other young man, "But then I'm just a barbarian, right? Which means I get kinda violent when I get pissed."

"Indeed?" Mikado regarded the other young man with a haughty expression, "And are you staking out your claim to this lady's affections?"

"That's got nothing to do with it!" Ranma winced somewhat defensively, "But if you don't back off now you're going out the door horizontal."

"Ranma..." Nabiki tried to get his attention.

"How absurd," Mikado sniffed, "Such an uncultured boor is not worth the time or attention of such a lady of refinement. It is an offense against nature to even find you sitting across from her in such a casual setting."

"Ranma-kun," Nabiki arched her tone to get his attention, "Back off. I don't need you to fight my battles."

"Hey, it's no skin off my nose if you want to flirt with this cheap bozo," Ranma cupped his hands behind his head and tried to act nonchalant, "Go ahead and sell yourself off if that's what you want, Nabiki, but you ask me, he's the one who ain't worth your time, so you decide how mercenary you wanna get with him, I just know I can't stand being downwind of such a smelly rat."

Real anger flared in Mikado's expression, but he mastered the impulse to retaliate and said stiffly, "We will settle this on the field of honor in tomorrow's contest. Be sure to put your affairs in order, fool, because you won't be walking away from this battle."

"Hell no," Ranma growled, "I'll be skipping over your phony carcass after walking all over you. Just don't try anything with Nabiki if you got any kind of honor about you. If you ain't won nothing, then nothing's what you get."

"I don't need to be lectured by the likes of you on the subject of honor," Mikado began to say, "In fact-HEY! Azusa-!"

"Pierre! Pierre!" the curly haired girl suddenly cried out, dragging Mikado after her and out of the Malt shop as she took off after yet another coveted treasure.

Nabiki counted until three before she growled aloud, "RAN-Maaaa...!"

"Huh?" Ranma blinked, recognizing that tone, "What?"

"Do you MIND if you let ME conduct BUSINESS on my own TERMS?" Nabiki emphasized each word with a special inflection, "What do you think you're doing blowing the deal like that...?"

"Hah, you mean you wanted to see yourself to that loser?" Ranma glowered.

"Of course not!" Nabiki shot back, "But I've been handling guys like that for years without giving anything away, and if you'd kept quiet and let me do my work you would have seen me fleece him for everything he's got, right down to his fillings. Do you honestly think that little of me that you'd imagine I'd sell myself off to him...?"

"Why not?" Ranma said, "You're the one who says it's all just about business!"

"You...BAKA!" Nabiki stood up with a suddenness that surprised her iinazuke and without pausing to think about it she shoved her own bowl of unfinished ice-  
cream in his face and angrily stormed right past him, not even bothering to notice the sudden change in gender as Ranma shifted from male to female with an accompanying change in haircolor.

"Wow," Kensuke remarked as he watched Nabiki angrily storm out of the malt shop, "You really blew it that time, Saotome."

"W-What did I say?" came the muffled voice of a bewildered redhead whose voice was pitched several octaves higher than Ranma's usual masculine tones.

"You really need to have it explained to you?" Aido asked, only to blink and say, "Hey...did you just shrink or something?"

"Huh?" Kensuke also blinked, "Hey...you're right...you are a lot...shorter..."

"Never mind, Guys," Ranma backed away as she cleared her eyes enough to see where she was going, "Just give me a minute to clean myself up and I'll try and explain things."

"Explain things?" Kensuke asked with arched eyebrows, "This ought to be good..."

"What the heck kind of secrets are you hiding this time, Saotome?" Aido asked, suddenly very much intrigued by what she sensed to be a great mystery, and one that was in need of instant solution.

"Hey, you wouldn't believe me if I told you," Ranma explained as she left the malt shop and headed for the public rest rooms, not even pausing to see which one she had just walked through.

"Hey!" Aido said, "Did you see that?"

"Yeah?" Kensuke asked his sister, "See what?"

"That was the boy's bathroom," Aido replied, "But did that look like a boy to you just now?"

"Ah...no...now that you mention it," Kensuke reluctantly agreed, "I thought I was imagining things, but..."

"I've got to check this out," Aido said in tones that showed her bloodhound instincts were in full sway, "And you're coming with me."

"Me? But..." Kensuke started to protest, only to find himself dragged along in the wake of his inquisitive sibling.

Inside the bathroom Ranma wasted no time seeking out the water faucets, but with her vision impaired she could only turn the knobs and hope to get the hot water going, and since she was in a hurry to clean her face she splashed the cold water over her eyes and started to clean things up when she heard a voice musing pleasantly, "Well now...who do we have here?"

Ranma-chan straightened up, looked first at her own reflection, then the reflection of the person standing next to her cleaning his own face in the adjacent faucet, and murmured to herself, "Uh-oh..."

"You're a new sight in these parts," Mikado mused, glad that he had finished cleaning the ice-cream off his face in time to greet such a beauty, "Tell me, how does a fragrant flower such as you wind up wandering into my presence, not that I am complaining of my good fortune..."

"Listen guy," Ranma-chan turned around, "I ain't got time to listen to you make your pitch, so..."

"Just so," Mikado took her hands in his own before Ranma could even think to stop him, "Words are inadequate when faced with such beauty. Only actions have meaning, and so I beg you to allow me the great honor of bestowing my nine-  
hundred and ninety-ninth kiss upon you, my-MPH!"

"Gah!" Ranma-chan said as she backed away with a fist planted in his face, "Don't you ever listen to anything but yourself, you Creep? I ain't got nothing to do with you, so just leave me alone!"

And with that she stormed out of the bathroom, forgetting to douse herself with hot water in the process.

"Hmmm," Mikado said as he recovered from the powerful blow with surprising resilience, "Methinks the maiden doth protest too much. Playing hard to get, now I find this very intriguing..."

"Huh?" Aido blinked as she saw the redhead coming back out from the bathroom in an angry state, "Who...?"

"Not right now," the redhead growled, "I gotta go find Nabiki."

There was a pause as Kensuke and his sister watched the redhead take off in the direction of the door, then he said aloud, "That was definitely a girl...and she's dressed just like Saotome."

"Weird," Aido replied, "Saotome really is a cross-dresser...who would have ever thought that...?"

"HEY!" Ranma-chan called out as she caught up to her glowering fianc e, "Nabiki-  
-wait up!"

"Go away, Saotome!" Nabiki snapped back at the girl, who was walking along the top of a fence at her side, "You don't want to be seen with a Mercenary like me, I might exploit you, remember?"

"Hey, I didn't mean it like that!" Ranma-chan called down, then vaulted directly into the path of the other girl, "Would you wait up already? I wasn't trying to insult you or nothing..."

"Really?" Nabiki got into the shorter redhead's face, "You could have fooled me. What did you think you were doing, calling me a Prostitute back there? Implying that I'd sell off my body..."

"Huh?" Ranma-chan reacted in shock, "Sell your...I...I didn't mean..."

"Oh no?" Nabiki asked, giving him her most sardonic expression, "Well, what did you mean? Mind telling me that?"

Ranma-chan was only on the defensive for a few seconds before images of Mikado flared up in her mind again, rekindling her anger, "Well, what the heck did you mean by acting all nicey-nice with frog-face Senzenen? Did you think I was just gonna sit there and let him hit on you without doing nothing about it?"

"I told you, I-" Nabiki started to say, but now that the redhead had her dandruff up she was not about to back down and concede the lines of anger to her again.

"You talk about me not having enough feelings for how you feel!" Ranma-chan blurted out, "What do you care about my feelings? You think I like it when a slippery, slimy, smooth-talking..."

"Ranma," Nabiki tone was curious, not angry, "Why do you care? You're not...jealous, are you?"

"I-Huh?" the redhead blinked her cobalt blue eyes and said, "J-J-Jealous? Who...me?"

Nabiki drew a deep breath then let it out again, "Ranma...I'm sorry if I gave you the impression that I was...responding to Senzenen's charms, but I really did know what I was doing with him, and you didn't have to hit the panic button..."

"Panic button?" Ranma-chan responded, "I wasn't panicking or nothing like that!"

"Oh no?" Nabiki looked the other girl directly in her eyes and said, "Then you really don't mind if Senzenen kisses me?"

"What?" Ranma-chan flared, "No way! If you want that slimy, smooth-talking loser to kiss you, don't let me try and stop you..."

"All right," Nabiki said, "Then when we lose tomorrow you won't mind when he collects his fee..."

"LOSE?" Ranma-chan's hackles stood on end, "You think I'm gonna lose to that guy? No way!"

"Then you will fight your best to make sure he doesn't collect his prize, eh?" Nabiki winked, "Or maybe I should just tell Senzenen that we ought to call it off, give him his prize as a consolation and leave it at that..."

"Call it off?" Ranma-chan glared, "I'd sooner kiss him myself than do that!"

"Well then," Nabiki concluded, "Since I know you hate to lose, and backing down isn't much of an option, then that means you're going to try your best when we have our match in another two days, and the fact that I'm the marker for a private personal bet between you doesn't even factor into the equation..."

"How can you say that?" Ranma-chan said sullenly before glancing down at the sidewalk sullenly and saying, "I...I won't let him do that either, Nabiki. It ain't just a matter of pride or honor...no way am I gonna let you lower yourself into giving that bastard what he wants."

"Excuse me?" Nabiki arched an eyebrow, "You won't let me do what?"

"You know damn well what I'm talking about!" Ranma-chan said, her blue eyes flashing furiously, "Or do you LIKE the idea of letting him kiss you? Hey, maybe he's more your type than me..."

"I don't want to kiss Senzenen, Ranma," Nabiki said calmly, "And I have no intention of letting him have his way with me...but if we lose the day after tomorrow, then it's another story. I never promise anything that I'm not ready to deliver, and I don't go back on a deal, so if it comes down to that..."

"You'd...let him do it?" the anger fell away from Ranma's eyes, to be replaced by shock and confusion.

"As you are so fond of reminding me," Nabiki replied, "It's all about honor, and in my profession there's a code that gamblers have to concede that if they lose a bet they've got to own up to their marker. To tell you the truth, the idea of kissing Senzenen has absolutely no appeal to me whatsoever...I'd just as soon kiss Kuno, or you for that matter."

"Hah, that'll be the day," Ranma grumbled.

Nabiki arched an eyebrow as she asked, "Excuse me?"

"The day when you'd willingly kiss me," Ranma-chan glowered, "Or have you forgotten that I'm a girl now, Baka?"

His iinazuke actually blinked at this, then Nabiki said aloud, "Oh yeah...I was meaning to ask you...why are you are girl right now anyway?"

"Gee, I was hoping that somebody would get around to asking that sooner or later," another feminine voice besides Ranma responded, "Or does your fianc normally cross-dress because he likes to make a scene in drag?"

"Huh?" Ranma and Nabiki turned around to see Kensuke and Aido standing there with matching sardonic expressions.

"Yes, exactly how is it that you manage to look so feminine anyway, Saotome?" Kensuke asked, "Can't be make-up because I can tell that you're not wearing any..."

"Ah..." Ranma-chan started rubbing the back of her head while looking sheepish, "It's...kind of a long story..."

"Would you believe it's magic?" Nabiki responded for him.

"Magic?" Aido cocked an eyebrow, "No fooling?"

"And just when were you going to let us in on this little secret you've been hiding from us, Saotome?" Kensuke wondered.

"Right about the time when hell froze over," Ranma-chan sighed, "All right...guess maybe I do kinda owe you guys an explanation..."

Kensuke lifted a finger and said, "And I'm dying to hear all about it, but before you go into any details, there's something else that we think you should see."

"It concerns your opponents," Aido added, "The Golden Pair are training on the ice rink right now, and we really think you ought to come back and see this."

"Training huh?" Nabiki mused, "Well, I suppose it might not hurt to have a look at what the competition is up to."

"Believe us," Kensuke said seriously, "It's vitally important that you both to into this with open eyes, which is more than what Aido and me had when we faced them in our own match. If you want to avoid the sort of trouble that happened to us..."

"Right," Ranma-chan nodded, "Let's see what moves the playboy and the ditz use, it oughta be worth a few good laughs..."

Five minutes later she was not laughing. Instead she stared in dismay as she saw Senzenen working out against an entire hockey team, using skating maneuvers that were nothing short of mortal combat.

"I don't believe it," Nabiki sounded no less appalled, "He took them all down...and in less than ten seconds?"

"Believe," Aido assured them, "It's moves like these which have made the Golden Pair unstoppable in nearly all of their matches, and that's what you'll be up against when you face them the day after tomorrow."

"Humph," Ranma-chan frowned, "Got some pretty slick moves there, but nothing I can't handle."

"You're joking," Kensuke sniffed, "A few days ago you could barely even stand up on ice, let alone fight with skates on, and now you think you're ready to take on the premier skating champions of the world?"

"Yeah, and you haven't even seen their Couple Cleaver or their ultimate technique, the Goodbye Whirl," Aido further noted, "They've got lots of special moves based on breaking up the team-work of any couple they go up against..."

"Well then," Nabiki said confidently, "We have an advantage since Ranma and me are not really a couple."

"Ahuh," Kensuke and his sister said together, exchanging dubious glances.

"Got any pointers on how to beat those two, Coach?" Ranma-chan asked seriously, "Any weaknesses in their techniques?"

"If you find any, be sure and let us know," Kensuke answered, "Because you'd be the first ones who didn't think they were unstoppable when those two work together."

"Well, it's not absolutely certain that we can't devise a counter in two days based on our observations," Nabiki said as she reached for her ever-handy ledger and opened it up to a fresh page, jotting down notes as she continued, "For example...we know that Senzenen is hopelessly infatuated with himself and can easily be distracted by anything female that gets within his radar, while his frilly haired dingbat of a partner-HEY!"

"Michelle, Michelle!" a delighted Azusa cried as she snatched both ledger and pen out of the hands of an unprepared Nabiki, running off towards the Ice with a happy, "I knew I'd find you if I followed the bad lady!"

"Why that-COME BACK HERE, YOU!" Ranma-chan called out as she gave chase onto the ice, only to land squarely in the middle of the rink and discover the hard way what that meant without skates on, "WHOOOOOAAAAHHH!"

Azusa blinked in a kawaii sort of way and watched the redheaded girl shoot off down the ice as though the latter's feet had been greased, and only Ranma's superb sense of balance kept her from landing flat on her back as she headed for the distant restraining wall.

Nabiki unconsciously winced and was about to look away when she caught sight of a blurred streak heading to intercept her sex-challenged iinazuke, and all at once Senzenen was there in time to catch the desperate Ranma-chan with a gallantry that could have been rehearsed for the stage. For a moment he stood there while Ranma hung in a swoon, her back angled above the ice in a very awkward position (and vulnerable) position.

"Are you all right now, Miss?" the handsome skater inquired.

"Ah..." Ranma-chan was staring up at the boy from a bent-over angle and could not think of anything more rational to say than, "...Yeah...I guess..."

"Good," Senzenen smiled, "Then perhaps it is time that I took my reward as your rescuer."

"Reward?" Ranma-chan blinked, "But-WAIT-I-MMMMPPPHH!"

Nabiki gripped the railing that she was leaning against and just stared at the tableau being played out before her. Aido and Kensuke were similarly dumbstruck at the sight of Mikado giving the redhead a kiss that would have been hot and steamy for any regular girl who had heterosexual inclinations. The kiss went on for half a minute, then Mikado straightened up again and set the redhead on her feet as gently as he could manage. Ranma-chan just stood there with a totally dumbfounded expression, staring straight ahead in shock as if unable to comprehend what had just happened.

"Ah...I am so heartless," Mikado sighed, "Forgive me for taking such liberties with you, Miss...and know that you are the nine-hundred-and-ninety-ninth fair damsel upon whom I have bestowed such a great honor."

"Ranma-kun," Nabiki faintly murmured, then held her breath and waited to see if there would be a reaction.

There was but mere seconds later as Ranma-chan blinked her eyes and turned to look towards Mikado, who smiled back at her and said pleasantly, "Of course I can tell that you are one whose lips have never before been graced by such a kiss, which is puzzling as you are a very compelling vision of loveliness..."

He got no further than this before Ranma-chan's fist came slamming forward to connect with his jaw and sent the skater flying. Senzenen shot back to the far end of the court, whereupon he impacted with force enough to shatter the protective plastic barrier. Then Ranma-chan turned around and started running on the ice to the far exit, going right past an astonished Azusa as she made a bee-line towards the nearest restrooms.

"Whoah," Kensuke remarked, "That was a good one, nailed Senzenen cold."

"What the heck just happened?" Aido turned to Nabiki and said, "Was she crying just now?"

Nabiki closed her mouth and coughed to clear herself, then said, "You'd cry too if you knew the full story. The short version has to do with these cursed springs that are said to exist in China, and if you fall into one of those you take on the form of the last thing that drowned there."

"A magic spring?" Kensuke asked, "Are you kidding?"

Nabiki shook her head, "I wish, but every time Ranma-kun gets wet he changes...cold water turns him into a girl, hot water turns him back, and...excuse me...I'd better go find the baka and try to calm him down before he does something really stupid."

"Too late for that," Aido said as she nodded to the restrooms, from which emerged a very angry MALE version of Ranma, "I think your boyfriend's on the warpath."

Nabiki was sufficiently distracted by the sight of her iinazuke that she did not bother to correct the "boyfriend" comment. In truth she had never seen this side of Ranma before in all the time she had so far spent with him, not gazed upon the pure, livid rage that filled his handsome expression with disgust, outrage and sheer self-loathing.

"SENZENEN!" he cried, startling everyone within the sporting arena.

Mikado had just managed to shake off the effects of his rather rude impact against the restraining barrier and grunted, "What is it? Some new fool challenge...?"

Ranma did not bother to notice Nabiki frantically waving for his attention, nor did he seem inclined to pause to put on skates as he leaped onto the ice once again, this time bracing himself better so that his landing did not send him skidding.

"Now you've done it...you're really, finally done it!" Ranma snarled, "I was irked with you before, but now-for the first time ever-I'm really, really ANGRY!"

"And what possible quarrel could you have with me to bring this off, pray tell?" Mikado asked as if oblivious to the murderous intent evident in the other boy's expression.

"You just kissed his sister, in front of everybody!" Nabiki managed to say as she called out from the sidelines, "And if I were you, I'd start running!"

"Sister?" Mikado blinked, then turned with scorn towards his antagonist, "That rare flower of womanly beauty is your sister?"

"Yeah," Ranma grunted, having just enough presence of mind to take up Nabiki's clue and not spill the beans about his condition, "My sister...and you KISSED HER, you MOTHERLESS-!"

"Now, now," Senzenen replied, "I had no way of knowing that she was related to you, which is such a perverse crime of the fates considering what a boorish dolt you are, to say nothing of lacking in any trace of gentlemanly breeding, or anything else redeemable..."

Ranma's fist impacted with the ice directly below him, delivered with smooth efficiency that put to shame Akane's regular efforts with cinderblocks, causing large cracks to form in the ice all around them.

"You think this is funny, guy?" he snarled, "You think you can just do whatever you want and not have to pay for it?"

Senzenen glanced down at the cracked ice, then at his opponent, and with much disdain said, "Now that was uncalled for. I can't stand it when someone destroys public property so blithely. For this...you must be punished."

"Bring it on, Pretty-boy," Ranma declared, falling into a fighting crouch, "Let's see what you really got."

"It seems that you cannot wait for our match to meet your untimely end," Senzenen reflected, "But since you asked so rudely, I must reluctantly accommodate your wishes."

"Ranma-kun," Nabiki faintly murmured.

"This is bad," Kensuke agreed.

"Saotome hasn't got any idea what he's up against," Aido concluded, "This is not gonna be pretty..."

And indeed, one moment later, Ranma launched his first attack, going from a standing start into a full dragon kick aimed directly at Mikado, who merely moved to one side and allowed his opponent to sail past without interruption. Ranma's landing was somewhat less than graceful as he misjudged his traction on the ice and went sliding back into the nearest wall section with a loud crashing noise that sounded and looked incredibly painful, to say nothing of the indignity of his resulting position.

"Idiot," Mikado remarked, "Only a fool launches a suicidal attack at the beginning of an encounter..."

To his surprise (and that of everyone else) Ranma recovered almost immediately and came at Mikado again, this time employing his hands and maintaining as firm a stance on the ice as he could manage. With his footing uncertain, however, his aim was less than sterling and Mikado had no trouble avoiding his attacks, backing away out of reach and giving his foe the wary respect of one who had discovered that there was more to his assailant than he had at first imagined.

"You have tenacity, I will give you that," Mikado conceded, "You force me to resort to drastic measures since it is plain that you will not be deterred by lesser efforts."

"Shut up and fight!" Ranma snarled as he kept trying to nail his elusive proponent.

"Very well," Mikado skated back out of reach and raised his arms at his side, "You have asked for this, fool. Behold...the Dance of Death!"

"Oh no," Kensuke murmured, "He's using the Dance this early?"

"Too bad for Saotome," Aido winced, "It was nice knowing him..."

Nabiki was about to ask them what they were talking about when Mikado began to all at once start spinning like a top, pirouetting on one leg as he gained momentum and started to twirl at greater and greater speed. Ranma tried to rush him but found his way blocked by some sort of invisible force, and then he was lifted from the ice altogether, held aloft in the spiraling vortex above Mikado's head, tumbling like a leaf in a mini-tornado while everyone else looked on in awe at Senzenen's achievement.

But then Nabiki sensed something a bit off about the vortex, and it started to slow down while she heard Kensuke say, "Whoah...take a look at that!"

"I see it but I don't believe it," Aido agreed, "Looks like your boyfriend's got a bit more on the ball than we thought, Tendo-san."

"Huh?" Nabiki asked even as Ranma fell to the floor of the ice and Mikado came to a complete halt in his spinning.

"I count five hundred, that sound about right to you, Sis?" Kensuke asked.

"Five hundred and three," Aido replied, "And those weren't love taps either."

"What are you two talking about?" Nabiki asked as she gingerly set foot upon the ice, then carefully waded out over the cracked and damaged rink to where Ranma lay prone upon his back.

"Just that Saotome won the fight," Kensuke mused as he joined her, balancing more easily upon the ice as his shoes had better traction, "Best upset I've ever seen."

"There may be hope for him after all," Aido mused, having adopted a pair of ice skates since she was not about to take the chance of slipping, coming to stand before Mikado to confirm her suspicions, "Yep, he's out of it all right...petrified from muscle tension, but other than that, totally unconscious."

Azusa skated up and satisfied herself that her partner was indeed on a mental vacation, "Miki-chan? He's not there..."

"The lights are on but nobody's in residence," Aido smirked, then made her move before the frilly haired girl could react and plucked Nabiki's ledger from her hands, passing it along with a, "Catch!"

Nabiki saw and snatched her ledger out of the air as it sailed by her head, then she turned back to the boy over whom she was crouching and said, "Ranma-  
kun...are you still with us?"

"Gnah...no problem," he groaned, "Jus' gimme a minute, I'll be fine..."

"Hey!" Azusa cried, "Give me back Michelle! Michelle! Michelle!"

The Skater tried to force Nabiki to give back the requested item, but the middle Tendo girl's temper had been frayed beyond even her formidable tolerance levels, and without pausing to reflect on what she was doing she rounded on the girl and slapped her...hard, causing Azusa to stagger away with a hurt and shocked expression.

"Shut up!" Nabiki snapped, "I've had just about enough out of you! This is all your fault, you bubble-headed little Twit! Because of you and your stupid habits, Ranma-kun and your partner both got hurt...!"

"Why are you picking on poor little Azusa?" the girl in question asked, eyes tearing up as she took a wounded (if very kawaii) pose and tried to effect a pose of total innocence, "What has Azusa ever done to you...?"

"Gee, I wonder," Nabiki glared, not buying the other girl's act.

"Nabiki," Ranma's voice surprised her, and she turned to see him prying himself off of the ice, "Let it go. We did enough for now...save the rest for the match...she ain't worth it."

"You okay, Saotome?" Aido asked.

"Heh...never better," he winced, refusing the hand that Kensuke offered as he managed to stand unsteadily with legs spread shoulder-width apart.

Nabiki decided that she had witnessed enough Testosterone in play for one evening and went to his side, ignoring his protests as she offered him her shoulder, "Come on, Ranma-kun, we're going home. I think we've both had enough excitement for one day."

"Heh...may be right about that," Ranma agreed, "S'okay...I can walk by myself..."

"This isn't for you, Dummy," Nabiki insisted, "If I let you go I could be in real trouble."

Kensuke and Aido watched the couple limp off the ice then exchanged curious looks with one another, the former saying, "Those two are definitely a weird couple..."

"Almost made for either other," Aido smiled, "Still want to hear the full story about that curse thing. Oh well...since Mikado's out of it, guess that means only one thing."

"And that is?" Kensuke asked of his mischievous sibling.

"Magic Markers!" Aido cried with glee as she produced same from seeming nowhere.

Kensuke blinked, then smiled as he turned a wicked look at the motionless Mikado.

"Oooh!" Azusa brightened, "Azusa wants one too!"

"Me too!" cried one of the Hockey players who had been standing along the sidelines, to be chorused by the rest of his teammates, and before too long they were all doodling on the face and body of the unresisting Senzenen, who would recover sometime later less than amused at being "Tagged" for the amusement of those who had taken advantage of his momentary incapacitation...

Continued.

Comments/Criticisms/Refund Hooey: shadowmane

Just as Ranma and Nabiki thought it was safe to go back out on the ice, guess who's coming to dinner to make a large impression? Be with us next time for: "The Iceman Cometh!" or "Wrongway Hibiki!" Be there!

X

If you wish to check out my other works, Please check out my Fanfiction webpage at: ~ All related chapters of this series can be found there along with my other works.  



	8. Chapter 8

RanHearts08

The Horse and Butterfly

By Jim Robert Bader

(Inspired by the works of Rumiko Takahashi)

Intermission.

Nexus of Worlds-Limbo,  
Time Patrol HQ, Station #317

"What were you two thinking by setting this up?" Nabiki demanded, "Visiting a timeline that was close to our original parameters, making alterations to the past that caused the timeline to deviate radically from base neutral, in complete violation of all regulations and standards. Don't you know you could both be kicked off the force for pulling a stunt like this?"

Ryonami and Gosunkugi had their heads bowed with mutually sheepish expressions, both effecting contrite expressions while privately hoping that their friend and supervisor would be in a more forgiving mood if they did not directly challenger her in mid-tirade.

"Well?" Nabiki scowled, "Speak up...I'm waiting to hear an explanation. If this were something Ranma would pull I could understand, but you two...?"

"Sempai..." Ryonami began to say.

"Don't Sempai me," Nabiki growled, "It's been a long time since we were classmates at Furinkan, and I'd expect a lot more adult behavior out of the both of you than to run around playing interdimensional Cupids. We're not teenagers anymore, Ryo-chan, so please don't act like you can worm your way onto my good side by appealing to our former relationship..."

"Boss," Gosunkugi spoke up for his partner and girlfriend, "We really weren't trying to stir up any trouble..."

"I don't care what you were trying to do, Gos," Nabiki snapped, "The fact is that you deliberately altered the past on Continuum #69482317, and now I have to make up some explanation for our superiors that will sound halfway justifiable, and don't you know how your conduct reflects upon me when higher-ups see what goes on in our division...?"

"What we mean to say, Boss," Ryonami began again, "Is that we really didn't do anything wrong. I know it looks and sounds like a policy violation, but Continuum #69482317 was already an altered timeline before we decided to play with it..."

"Say what?" Nabiki blurted.

"It's true, Boss," Gosunkugi assured her, "The timeline was formerly a Bet timeline, one altered by the Gods in one of their numerous attempts at exploring alternate possibilities. It...didn't pan out, so they decided to return it to a state of relative neutrality by undoing the alteration..."

"Which meant that an entirely new pattern emerged since a history once altered can never flow exactly the same way again," Ryonami concluded. "It may look the same and come within a 99.9999% proximity of resembling the timeline we knew back in own past, but there is just enough subtle variation to allow us a margin of play, and so we decided-Gos and me, that is-to have a little bet of our own, just to see what might come of that alteration."

"A bet?" Nabiki asked suspiciously, "What kind of a bet?"

"Ah...well..." the slightly built technician wilted under the glare of his immediate supervisor, "It was...kind of about you and Ranma..."

"We wanted to know if it was possible to bring you two together by making a slight alteration in the circumstances of how you met, Boss," Ryonami hastily supplied, "So we...kind of arranged it for you to meet him in an entirely neutral setting BEFORE either one of you found out about the engagement...just to see if you'd...well...hit it off without any outside prompting..."

"Outside prompting...other than by you two goofballs, you mean?" Nabiki inquired.

"Ah...more or less," Gosunkugi adjusted his glasses, "A timeline where it was you, and not Akane, who got engaged to Saotome Ranma, only by your own consent and not just because your parents said so."

"And it worked great!" Ryonami brightened up, "The minute he rescued you from getting run over in traffic it was like hearts and flowers were in the air, and you could see how much the big guy worked his charms on you, and how much he was getting to like you...um...before your fathers interfered and sprang the news of your engagement."

"Right," Nabiki said in a droll tone of voice, "Right before the me of this timeline got it into her head that our meeting was not purely accidental, at which point she began to suspect the Ranma-kun of this time continuum to have plotted to arrange said meeting purely so he'd be able to get on her good side."

"Well," Gosunkugi winced, "We admit that there were a few flaws in the program..."

"But look, it still turned out great," Ryonami nodded to the monitor screen and gave the vocal instructions, "Play out scene 347.2E, the time just before the match with the Golden Pair."

Nabiki briefly considered countermanding her assistant's directions, but as she turned her head to see the image that was called up she found herself momentarily intrigued, for there was a much younger version of herself sitting down inside the dojo applying bandages to an obviously bruised and battered teenaged Saotome Ranma...

Chapter Seven.

Wild Hearts Won't Be Broken!

"Hold still, don't squirm so much," Nabiki told her male patient, "You're such a big baby..."

"But-OW-that stings, Nabiki!" Ranma protested, "You don't have to do this...I'll be all right in a few more hours..."

"Now Ranma-kun," she chided, "I'm your manager and I know what's best for you, so grin and bear it for now. I don't care how fast you heal, it still wouldn't do for you to get an infection and ruin those good looks of yours...I mean, how do you expect me to make any money off you if your face is all swollen and stuff? The girls at our school would be heartbroken..."

"Oh, you'd like that, wouldn't you?" Ranma said resentfully.

"Huh?" Nabiki paused, "And what the heck is that supposed to mean?"

"You really like it when other girls come onto me?" Ranma glowered sullenly.

"Ah...well...it's good for my business," Nabiki said in neutral tones both wary and guarded.

"Well, I don't like it when other guys come onto you," Ranma informed her, "Like that Senzenen guy...and are you really gonna let him kiss you if he wins the match? Now that he's got a prayer of beating me, of course..."

"Ah...well," Nabiki said, "I wouldn't want anybody to say that I don't live up to my...obligations, but..."

"Hah, you see?" Ranma snapped, "And how do you think that makes me feel anyway? Not that a Mercenary like you gives a damn about my feelings..."

Nabiki blinked her eyes to that then scowled back at him, "Would it surprise you so much to know, Saotome, that I do, in fact, have feelings? Sure, I don't express them all over the place like you do, but..."

"Yeah, but kissing a guy's nothing special to you, right?" Ranma challenged in tones of studied indifference.

"Ah...well..." Nabiki glanced down and did not meet his accusing expression.

"So I'm supposed to just sit here and be cool with what you do because it's none of my business, and even if Pop says we are engaged, you can do you own thing because we really don't mean nothing to each other, right?" Ranma said as he glanced away with a nonchalance that was belied by the tone which he was using.

"That's not fair!" Nabiki flared, "I'm not out to flaunt myself in front of you or anything like that, Ranma..."

"Sure...whatever you say, 'Biki."

Her eyes got very rounded at this and she shot back, "Well, how was I to know you'd act like such a knuckle-dragging caveman all of a sudden? What am I to you anyway? A trophy wife? Wake up and smell the soba, Ranma-kun, the world doesn't revolve all around you, you know...I have a life, too, and I'll be damned if I go around having to consult with you on every little decision that I make..."

"Yeah, you can do whatever you want, just...leave me out of it!" Ranma said sullenly, "'Cause like you say, it's just all about business."

Nabiki glared at him a full minutes before her glare lost steam and she found herself looking down again with a more contrite expression, "That wasn't called for, Ranma-kun. I am worried about you...it's a manager's job to worry, after all, and if you're not fighting at your best..."

"Then what?" Ranma asked, "You'll have to pucker up and kiss that frog, Mikado?"

"Do you honestly think I want to kiss that...lech?" she snapped, "I'd sooner kiss you, Saotome..."

"Hah, that'll be the day!" Ranma snapped, "You wouldn't have the guts to do a thing like that."

Nabiki rocked back on her ankles and just looked at him with rounded eyes, then in a puzzled voice she said, "You mean that? Why...Ranma-kun, that almost sounds like a challenge."

"Huh?" he half-turned to look at her again, only to feel his pulse lurch as he recognized the sly and cunning look that she was turning in his direction.

"Shouldn't I be the one issuing that sort of challenge to you?" she continued slyly, "After all, I happen to know for a fact that you've never kissed any girl before, right? Let alone me. Maybe I should be betting you that you won't have the guts to kiss me."

"Hah? But...what?" Ranma blinked in evident confusion.

"That's right," Nabiki gave her iinazuke a look that would have done credit to a Cheshire, "The big, strong He-Man is afraid of kissing a girl, so what do I have to lose if I challenge you to kiss me? I'd bet anything that you'd chicken out and find some way to avoid going through with the gesture..."

"But...wait a minute!" Ranma said in growing panic, "Are you saying you want to kiss me?"

"Urk!" it was Nabiki's turn to look caught off guard and confused, but she managed to rally herself with a, "Well...what's wrong with that, huh? I mean...you're a nice enough guy to look at, even if you've got a personality that's got room for only one Ego in that fool head of yours..."

"Oh yeah?" Ranma sensed the time of verbal battle turning in his favor and smiled back at her, "Sounds to me like you're the one who wouldn't have the nerve to kiss me. You'd do it with Mikado, but not the guy you're actually engaged with..."

"Well, why not?" Nabiki tried to rally her defenses, "At least Senzenen knows how to act like a gentleman, even if he is a serial molester. You, on the other hand, wouldn't even know what to do with a girl if she kissed you on the mouth..."

"Yeah, let's test that out, shall we?" Ranma said as he fluidly turned to Nabiki and reached out to tap her on the chest with his index finger, tilting her back as he smoothly moved to catch her so that he was bent over the swooning girl with Nabiki looking up at him in round-eyed surprise and amazement.

"Okay," Ranma said as he stood poised hovering above her with only a few inches separating their two faces, "I'm gonna do it now, but only because you dared me. It ain't like I wanna do this or nothing...I mean...I...ah..." he seemed to lose track of what he was saying the longer he stared into her eyes and saw her looking up at him with a timid, confused and yet expectant expression.

Nabiki wondered what was happening to her...her heart was beating like a fluttering bird trying to get loose from a cage as she stared up into the blue eyes of the boy holding her in such a vulnerable position. Her back was only six inches above the floor and she had the thrilling sense of raw power in the arms that were supporting her, had a much closer sense of the raw manliness being projected by the handsome boy who was threatening to kiss her, and had an absolutely certain conviction that there was nothing that she could either do or say that would deter him in this course of action. She was totally at his mercy, a small dove held by a large predator...and yet with a sense that the predator himself was just as confused and uncertain as she was. As the seconds ticked by into a full minute the two of them just stared at one another with the question looming large over which of them was the hunter or the hunted.

When at last Nabiki thought that the hesitation would win out over the resolve that she sensed within Ranma she started to relax a bit and smiled up at him with a challenge on her lips, "I knew you wouldn't have the guts to go through with it, Saotome."

As expected that firmed his resolve and he looked even more determined than before as he said, "All right...but don't say you didn't ask for this..."

He moved his head closer and brought his lips closer to her own, but just shy of contact he hesitated, feeling again the tremendous sense that he was holding a girl within his arms and was frighteningly aware of the subtle differences between their two bodies. Nabiki was in good shape for a girl her age, but certainly nothing to compare with his own robust physique, and as such she felt more delicate and fragile, like a small thing in his arms that he could crush if he was not careful. She felt so soft and light in his arms that he wondered if he were doing this the right way, or if he might accidentally hurt her by applying too much pressure. In truth it felt very nice to hold her, and there was an odd perfume-like scent about her body that made him hesitate, in no great hurry to rush through the moment.

Again Nabiki felt the hesitation and doubt winning out within Saotome Ranma, which amazed her as much as the strength of her own resolve as she waited for him to kiss her. She felt an impulse to reach up and draw him into the circle of her own arms but held that in check as she waited to see what he would do now that he had her where she wanted him. In truth her curiosity was getting the better of her as she smelled the strong aroma of his own body-scent, slick with sweat from his earlier exertions yet somehow overpowering at this close proximity, entirely male and fairly reeking of all things masculine, which made her feel all the more the differences between them.

But then a slight clicking noise off to the side distracted both of the prospective lovers, causing them to turn their heads in order to see the gathering that stood at the doorway to the dojo, which included both of their fathers, Kasumi and a very impatient-looking Akane.

"Well?" the latter asked, "Are you two gonna kiss or not?"

Nabiki blinked when she saw what was in the hands of her younger sister, "Is that my camera?"

"Ah...yeah?" Akane asked nervously, "What about it?"

Nabiki and Ranma exchanged looks, then all at once they realized what the position they were in must have appeared like and almost immediately flew apart, each turning their backs to the other as they saw looking way in opposite directions.

"Well?" Soun Tendo demanded, "What is it going to be, you two? Are you going to sit like this forever?"

"Be a man, Boy!" Genma flared, "Get back to what you were doing and kiss her!"

"Oh my," Kasumi fretted, "Is this seemly behavior, Father? After all, they're not even married yet..."

"URK!" both Nabiki and Ranma gulped together, then the latter said, "Hey, we weren't doing nothing!"

"That's right," Nabiki assured her family, ignoring the way her voice trembled, "Nothing, not a thing, just practicing for our match the day after tomorrow..."

"Oh yeah, right," Akane snorted, "I knew you guys would chicken out sooner or later..."

"Hey, it ain't none of your business what we do, you Tomboy," Ranma snapped, "If 'Biki and me want to just sit here then it ain't nobody else's business..."

"Biki?" the girl in question winced, "I told you to stop calling me that, Ran...ah...Saotome."

Akane sighed as she got to her feet and then reluctantly approached the "non-  
couple," winding the camera up into her sleeve so as not to allow it to show too much before the eyes of her sister, "Well, you're right, it's none of my business, but I thought you ought to at least know that there's somebody else who's looking for you, Saotome. He says he used to be a friend of yours from middle school named Hibiki Ryoga...ring any bells that?"

"Hibiki Ryoga?" Ranma blinked, then he repeated it again, "Hibiki Ryoga...yeah...I know that name from somewhere...it's been a while, a couple of years at least, but..."

"Well, he says he wants to kill you now," Akane resumed, "He says you broke a man-to-man promise, and he seems really upset about it."

"A man-to-man promise?" Ranma seemed even more confused over this, "What the heck are you talking about? I've never backed out on any promise in my life..."

"Especially the ones you've actually agreed to?" Nabiki asked with a return of her sense of equilibrium now that her heart had decided to stop racing like frightened deer, "Can you describe what this guy whose after Ranma looks like, Akane?"

"Oh sure," Akane brightened, "Well, he's nice, very polite, and he's extremely handsome, in a rude, barbaric sort of way, and I don't think he's been staying indoors much lately because he looks like he's been sleeping in his clothes for days, maybe even weeks..."

Something about the way Akane was smiling when she said this caused Nabiki's instincts to sharpen, "Would you say he's cute for a guy?"

"Oh yeah," Akane smiled, "Why do you ask?"

"Just how old is he anyway?" Nabiki wondered in deepening suspicion.

"About our age," Akane shrugged, "Hey, if he's the same age as Ranma..."

"And would you say that he acts like a drooling pervert?" Nabiki wondered.

"ACK!" Akane winced, "Certainly not! Why would you say that?"

"Because I've never heard you describe a boy your own age as anything less than one," Nabiki pointed out, "And you just called him cute..."

"I did not!" Akane insisted.

"That's funny," Ranma said, "I could have sworn I heard that..."

"You keep out of this, Ranma!" Akane snapped, "Besides, what do you know? You did something to make this guy feel extremely angry towards you, and he waiting for you right now at our high school just so that he can meet with you in the morning and hash it out..."

"What?" Ranma blinked, "He's...waiting for me?"

"You mean he's camped out at Furinkan High School?" Nabiki marveled.

"I've just gotta check this out," Ranma said, straightening up, "I'd swear I know this guy...he sounds familiar, but...I gotta see for myself if it's who I think he is..."

"Then I'm coming with you," Nabiki said as she also straightened up.

"Hey, if it's a fight this guy wants, then it ain't no place for a girl..." he started to protest.

"But I'm not just any girl," Nabiki countered, "I'm your manager, Saotome, and if someone has a grudge with you, then I've every right to be there to sound him out so that I can determine if his grudge is legitimate or not."

"Legitimate?" Ranma blinked, "Hey, when did you start deciding who I can fight with or not?"

"Now Ranma-kun," Nabiki's smile was all confident and business-like again, "What kind of a manager would I be if I let you fight with just anyone? After all, there aren't many people who could give you even a halfway decent workout, and it would hardly be sporting if I let you pick on weaklings. Besides, there's no money to be made in letting you give free demonstrations to every Tom, Dick and Mikado..."

"This I just have to see," Akane rolled her eyes, "Come on...I'll show you guys where I left him. He ought to still be there..."

"Assuming he didn't wander off and get himself lost someplace," Ranma half-  
smirked, "'Which the guy I knew tended to do a whole lot..."

The fathers exchanged looks and then Soun said to Genma, "What do you think, Saotome-kun?"

"It sounds like it might be as diverting as a game of Shogi," Genma agreed, "Assuming the fellow can put up a decent fight against the boy, which-as his fianc e says-is not very likely."

"Oh my," Kasumi remarked, sensing what was looking like a family outing in progress and wondering to herself whether or not to pack away sandwiches as someone was bound to get hungry...

"All right," Nabiki said levelly to her two subordinates, "I'll admit this has got me intrigued...but I'm still not happy that you pulled this thing off behind my back."

"We're sorry if we put you on the spot, Boss," Ryonami said contritely, "But you have to admit that this is turning out to be a very viable timeline."

"Assuming that our supervisors don't order us to void it," Gosunkugi duly noted.

"Which is assuming that I will tell them of what the both of you cooked up together," Nabiki remarked, "Which all depends on what is about to happen when this version of Ranma has his first meeting with Ryoga..."

"Well?" Ranma asked as he glanced around, "Where is he?"

"That's odd," Akane looked around, "He said he was going to remain right here at the base of this tree and not wander off anywhere...but where...?"

Nabiki heard a slight shuffling noise coming from directly overhead and started to turn to investigate when she heard Ranma cry out with a sharp, "GET BACK!" and all at once he scooped her up into his arms and started leaping.

Nabiki had one dazzling instant to appreciate being in total freefall before the arms of her reluctant "client" tightened to absorb the brunt of a massive shockwave that rang out in the space where they had been standing. Another few breathless moments later and Ranma alighted on the ground, cushioning her landing as he straightened out again, turning to see the massive crater that had been created in the space they had so abruptly vacated.

At the center of a rounded bowl gouged out of the ground was a figure hunched down over some sort of cane-like object. That figure straightened out again and revealed himself entirely in the dwindling light of a setting son, as tall and ruggedly handsome as Ranma himself but for the oddly careworn yellow shirt and baggy green pants that he was wearing, a tiger-striped bandana around his forehead adding to the differences as he flashed a look of triumphant annoyance.

"Saotome Ranma...at last I've finally found you!"

"Ryoga-kun?" Akane asked as she, too, had instinctively dodged the attack, "What...?"

"I'm sorry," the strange boy replied, "I didn't mean to involve you too, Akane...but when I saw my hated enemy standing here..."

"Ryoga?" Ranma blinked, setting Nabiki down on her feet as he turned to face his would-be antagonist, "Hey...wait a minute! I do know you! It's been a couple of years, but I'd know you anywhere..."

"SHUT UP AND FIGHT!" Ryoga snarled, hurtling the object in his hand with great force as it unfolded to become an umbrella, and then it sliced the air where Ranma had been standing.

"Whoah!" Ranma said as he swept Nabiki out of the way, even as the hurtling object kicked up a wind that set her hair and skirt to swirling, "What the hell are you doing? You wanna hurt somebody doing that?"

"Just you, Ranma!" the other boy cried as he leaped towards his intended target, "Stop hiding behind the girls and fight!"

Ranma dodged a powerful kick as Ryoga leaped to the attack without further warning. The other boy recovered and whirled about before launching a series of punches and kicks in his direction, each blow missing Ranma by mere inches as the latter dodged away, taking his measure of his angry opponent. Each thrust kicked up a furious wind that seemed to whip past Ranma's elusive form as they dodged along the periphery of the crater, one movement followed by another in rapid order as they darted around the schoolyard, Ryoga on the offensive, Ranma avoiding him by inches.

"Saotome," Soun remarked as the two fathers stood off at a distance watching the pair going at it in a one-sided brawling match, "Those moves..."

"Yes, Tendo, I see," Genma agreed, "The boy fights using the Anything Goes system, but it looks more like it's been tempered by the Righteous Fist school..."

"I was saying that he reminds me of someone," Soun remarked, "Someone we both used to know quite well..."

"Don't say it," Genma urged, "Hopefully the boy came by himself this time. No sense in jinxing things by mentioning names..."

"This time?" Soun asked with arched eyebrows, but the question went unanswered as the fight between Ranma and Ranma escalated to a new and more furious level.

"Stand still and let me break you, Ranma!" Ryoga was snarling.

"Oh yeah, like that's gonna happen," Ranma sniffed, "What's the matter, Ryoga? Why are you so upset? You're not still bothered about that bread thing, are you?"

"Bread?" Ryoga's nostrils flared, "You think this is about BREAD? DIIIIEEE!"

"Well," Akane remarked, "You have to admit, they're both awfully good..."

"But who the hell is he?" Nabiki declared, not wanting to concede that she was worried about this strange boy's formidable fighting technique, or that Ranma appeared to be entirely on the defensive.

"I don't really know," Akane remarked, "Maybe they're old sparring partners, do you think? I mean, they're Ryu is almost identical...except maybe that Ranma is a little faster, and Ryoga-kun looks pretty strong and has a lot of stamina..."

"Ranma-kun!" Nabiki called out, "What are you doing playing with him like that? Get serious, will you?"

"Hey, don't tell me how to fight," Ranma said, "I can handle this guy, no problem."

"You mean you wish, Ranma!" Ryoga snarled, revealing his pronounced canines, which for some strange reason caused Soun and Genma to inwardly shudder, "Don't tell me you're holding back on account of some girl?"

"What?" Ranma almost allowed himself to be nailed as he hesitated by a fraction.

"You heard me, Ranma!" Ryoga taunted, "You're running away, just like you did from our man-to-man fight! This is just like when you broke your word to me two years ago..."

"I didn't break my word to you, Ryoga!" Ranma snapped, "You're the one who got himself lost and missed our fight!"

"So I got a little sidetracked," Ryoga countered as he tried to sweep the legs of his opponent out from under him, only to see Ranma vault back out of his reach, "You still should have waited..."

"I did wait for you, Baka!" Ranma snapped, "I stood for three whole days in that vacant lot waiting for you to show up!"

"Three days?" Akane blinked.

"Oh sure, you waited for three days," Ryoga scoffed, "But by the fourth day, when I showed up, you are long gone, you Coward!"

"Hey!" Ranma caught Ryoga's fist in the palm of one hand and stopped it cold, then did the same with the other, "Nobody calls me a coward, Man! Besides, I didn't run away, Pop came and carried me home, and the next day we left town, so it wasn't like I was avoiding you or nothing!"

"Then what the hell were you doing?" Ryoga snarled, "I chased after you, I followed you everywhere you went, but you kept running away so that I never could catch up and find you..."

"Hey, you got lost, that's all," Ranma countered, "And we were traveling the whole time, even went as far as China..."

"I KNOW!" Ryoga snarled, "I followed you there, but you still avoided me! Don't tell me you weren't running the whole time..."

"Not from you!" Ranma snarled back, only to pause as he added, "China? Ryoga...don't tell me you followed us all the way to Jusenkyo?"

Ryoga broke the stalemate by butting his head forward, driving Ranma back and almost to his knees at it had been an unexpected maneuver.

"That's right, Jusenkyo!" Ryoga snarled, "I even followed you to that damned Amazon village, but you kept running away from me, but now I'm going to finish you off so you can never run away from me again!"

"WHOAH!" Nabiki called out, "HEY, TIME OUT! BELL RINGS AND ALL OF THAT! BOTH OF YOU-JUST COOL IT!"

"Huh?" both Ranma and Ryoga turned to look at her as the middle Tendo girl stood near to hand with her hands raised in a classic "T" formation.

"Good," Nabiki said, "Now that I've got your attention, would you mind clarifying a few points? For example...this fight you're having now...how did it get started?"

"Oh," Ranma shrugged, rubbing his forehead, "Well, it just happened on account of the school we were in. It was an all-boy's academy...you know anything what they're like?"

"Somewhat," Nabiki replied as she folded her arms over her chest, "But do go on."

"Well, things get pretty competitive around lunchtime, and sometimes you have to fight for a meal, know what I mean?" Ranma asked, then continued as his iinazuke nodded her comprehension, "So you see...we often got into fights about the bread rolls they served, and they just never seemed to make enough of them to go around, so everybody fights for the last piece when it gets thrown into the middle, and that's how Ryoga and me met, when I took the last roll that he thought was his..."

"It was mine, you Thief!" Ryoga snapped, "I had it good and square, but you kept stealing from me at the last second..."

"Yeah, well...that's how it started between us," Ranma shrugged, "But after a while we got to know each other pretty well and I started helping you out by showing you the way to school and everything. You still got pretty worked up about the bread thing, so I started sharing mine with you, and then when I found out you were into the martial arts we started sparring together, and then we had that fight over which of us was better, which is how you wound up challenging me to meet you behind your house..."

"Huh?" Akane blinked, "Behind his house?"

"That's where the vacant lot was that was to be the place of our big match," Ranma explained.

"You mean where it was to be your gravesite, Ranma!" Ryoga snarled, "But because you ran away..."

"I told you, I waited three days!" Ranma shot back once again, "It was Pop who convinced me that it wasn't worth waiting around forever..."

"Wait...I'm confused here," Nabiki pleaded, "You say the fight was to be behind your own house...and yet you couldn't find your way there in four days?"

"Yes," Ryoga said, then paused before saying, "Um...who are you?"

"She's my sister, Nabiki," Akane explained, "And she's engaged to marry Ranma."

"AWP!" both Ranma and Nabiki sputtered together before the latter said, "I keep telling you, it's just a business arrangement! I'm his manager and..."

"Manager?" Ryoga turned a questioning look towards Ranma, "You're marrying her?"

"Hey, it ain't like it was my choice or nothing!" Ranma sputtered, "It was the Old Man's idea, not mine! You think I'd marry a girl who put money before everything else, including honor? Get serious, guy..."

Nabiki scowled then coyly said, "Oh yes...we all know how much you care about honor, Saotome. Take this fellow, for example, who was expecting you to wait to meet him for an honorable challenge match..."

"Hey, I waited three days, was I supposed to wait forever?" Ranma snapped.

"Maybe," Nabiki coolly replied, "After all, aren't you the one who's always reminding me that Budo comes before everything and that you can't lower yourself to put profit above your own ego?"

"Man, you are so uncute when you start talking like a Mercenary..."

"At least I keep my eye on the bottom line so that my family doesn't starve to death, Mister."

"Hey, money isn't everything, you know! You can't tell me it means more than fighting opponents fairly without resorting to unfair means..."

"And when have I ever asked you to do that? I've only said you ought to consider taking it easy with some of your fights so you can generate more interest..."

"So you can collect bets on the winner and make money at my expense, 'Biki?"

"What's wrong with turning a little profit, and I told you to stop calling me that!"

"Oh, struck a nerve, huh? What wrong with me calling you 'Biki," 'Biki?"

"Hey..." Ryoga started to say when both Nabiki and Ranma rounded on him with a savagely snarled, "YOU KEEP OUT OF THIS!" to which Ryoga actually back-pedaled.

"Those two," Akane sighed, "Honestly the way you fight all the time you'd think you were already married..."

"HAH!?" the verbal combatants turned to look at her with mutually shocked expressions.

"She's right, you know," Soun beamed, "They do sound a lot like a married couple..."

"Brings back memories of our own wives and how they used to talk to us, eh, Tendo?" Genma remarked with cheerful camaraderie.

"Oh yes," Soun replied, only to think a moment about this before he began bursting out with tears and sobbing, "Oh...Kimiko-chan...!"

"Oh Father," Kasumi sighed in gentle-voiced exasperation.

"A married couple?" Nabiki cringed, "You've got to be kidding me!"

"Me marry the Mercenary?" Ranma snorted, "It'll never happen."

"Like I'd ever debase myself into marrying a mindless Jock like you..." Nabiki shot back.

"I see," Ryoga remarked with deceptive calm, then his anger rekindled itself as he snarled, "And what makes you think you deserve her as your fianc e, Ranma? A nice girl like that, and all you can do is call her names and insult her honor?"

"Huh?" Ranma blinked, noticing that the other boy was starting to generate a powerful battle aura.

"And to think all this time you've been avoiding me while you try and seduce an innocent girl with your charms," Ryoga snarled in a more bestial voice, "You don't deserve someone like her after what you've put me through, Ranma! On account of you, I've seen HELL!"

"What the heck are you talking about-HEY!" Ranma cried out as he sensed a renewed attack coming.

The other boy launched into an attack that was powerfully delivered with perfectly executed timing, and the only reason the blow did not connect was that Ranma flowed away from the punch and caught it with both legs, pinning Ryoga by the arm as he fell onto his back and catapulted him over both hedge and nearby fence, causing the angry boy to tumble out of sight with a resounding "SPLASH!" that informed everyone of where exactly he had landed.

"Oh great," Akane huffed, "You threw him into the pool...nice going."

"Hey, he was trying to do a lot worse to me!" Ranma shot back as he straightened up once again, "A little dip like that ought to cool him off a bit, and what are you defending him for, anyway?"

"He happens to be a very nice guy who has a valid grudge with you, Ranma," Akane snorted, "Or didn't you figure that out when you asked if he'd followed you all the way to China?"

"W-what?" Ranma blinked, but the dark haired girl was already storming past him, and as it was getting too dark to see clearly he could only assume that she was headed for the school pool area to check up on Ryoga.

"Well, that was anti-climactic," Nabiki said, "You fight like that against Senzenen and we might just have a chance, Saotome."

"Aw, I was just playing with the baka," Ranma assured her, "He never would have nailed me if I didn't get surprised about him following me all the way to that Amazon village..."

"Amazon village?" Nabiki arched her eyebrows.

"Yeah, but you don't want to hear about that right now, do you?" Ranma huffed, "It's getting dark now, so what say we go home and have dinner."

"Oh my, yes," Kasumi responded, "I'd almost forgotten, and now everything will be getting cold..."

"Don't worry about it, Kasumi," Soun reassured his oldest daughter, "I'm sure that anything prepared by your hand will taste as good warm or cold."

"And I'm hungry enough that I wouldn't notice either way," Genma added with a contented rubbing of his belly.

"By the way," Nabiki said, "What should we be doing about your friend, Hibiki?"

"What do you expect me to do about him?" Ranma asked, "He'll probably wander off and get lost, so my guess is we won't be seeing him around for a while."

"Well then, I guess you are the expert about such things," Nabiki made a point of turning her back on her iinazuke, "After all, what do I know about enemies? Even if they are good enough to give you a moderate workout."

"Huh?" Ranma found himself vaguely troubled about the tone that she was adopting towards him, "What are you mad about now?"

"I'm not mad, Saotome," Nabiki said in her most aloof tone of voice, "I don't have feelings, remember? I'm just a heartless mercenary."

"Huh?" Ranma stood his ground for about five seconds as he watched the older girl go walking off by herself, and then he found himself saying aloud, "Hey! Nabiki, wait up! I didn't mean it like that..."

Meanwhile Akane was silently fuming to herself, "Those two...they're such Bakas! They never say exactly what they mean at the right time..."

She finished climbing down off of the fence surrounding the pool and headed out to where she assumed Ryoga had landed. There was some lighting here provided by an overhead lamp, but most of the power had been shut off to save on electricity. There was a light on inside the pool that allowed her to stare down into the water, so if Ryoga had gone under she was reasonably certain that she would be able to spot him.

Of course what she would do if she did find him drowning was a different question entirely. Akane had never been able to swim and tended to sink like a stone whenever she got into any body of water. Too much negative buoyancy she reasoned, the result of her intensive training, which gave her greater muscle and bone density than other girls her age with less of the baby fat that other girls might use for flotation. If it came to jumping into the water in order to save the boy from drowning then she might well ask who would dive in after to save her. At best she might be able to call in for Ranma or Nabiki's assistance, though Kasumi was just as good a swimmer, or maybe even their fathers...

This line of thought was abruptly halted as Akane gazed into the pool only to find-much to her surprise-that the only thing visible for her was a pair of shirt and pants that were presently floating without their owner being in them. It took a full moment for her to register the significance of this, and then she caught a movement out near the far end of the pool and saw a small black form frantically trying to climb up on the side railing.

"Ryoga?" she blinked, dawning awareness giving her an odd sense of the utter unreality of the moment.

The black shape paused in what it was doing, turning a pair of beady eyes her way, and then the tiny creature started scrambling with greater effort, managing to hook its forward limbs over the edge of the concrete so that it managed to pull itself over the edge, at which point it started to scramble for the nearest bushes.

"WAIT!" she cried out, hurrying to move around the edge of the pool itself, "Don't go! I need to talk to you!"

She heard a mild squealing noise that sounded inquisitive, but by the time she got to the far end she could see no trace of the small creature which-she deduced-was huddling within the concealment of the bushes.

"Ryoga?" she asked, "Is that you in there?"

"Bwee?" came the softly bestial answer.

"I was right, wasn't I?" Akane asked, "You did follow Ranma into China, and that's what you were really so angry about. You must have gone to Jusenkyo..."

"Bwee?" came the squeal again, this time evidencing more surprise in its inflection.

"What happened to you?" Akane asked, "Did that Baka somehow knock you into one of those cursed springs, like turns him into a girl and his father into a panda?"

"BWEE?!"

"You didn't know?" Akane blinked, "They both have Jusenkyo curses, and so do you, right? You turn into something else when you get wet, don't you? No wonder you're so angry...I can hardly blame you."

"Bwee?"

"Yes, I mean...if I fell into something like that, then I'd be upset too," Akane tried to reassure him, "Believe me, I don't hold it against you at all...so why don't you come out of there and let me see what your cursed form is like."

"Bwee."

"Oh come on," Akane pleaded, "Don't be such a big baby. I know it must be embarrassing for you, but..."

"Bwee?"

"Of course I promise not to laugh," Akane smiled, "Honestly, boys can be so sensitive about the silliest things..."

"Bwee!"

"Oh, not that I'm calling you silly or anything like that," Akane hastily corrected, "So...you might as well come out of there or you won't be able to get your clothes back. I can fish them out of the water with the net for you, but you have to promise to trust me. I won't do anything bad to you, honest."

"Bwee?" there was more hesitation in the voice, but then a resigned, "Bwee," signified capitulation. A moment later Akane was rewarded with the sound of brushes being pushed aside, then out into the open moved a dark figure that was no more than a foot long and moved on all four cloven hooves, a curly tail just adding the right note to the otherwise cute package.

Akane reckoned that the lighting was pretty bad, but she was reasonably certain that she was gazing upon a small black pig, and that said pig had a tiger-  
striped bandana tied around its neck, but-amazingly enough-the eyes of the pig reminded her very much of the boy whom she now knew was trapped in such an innocuous cursed form.

"R-Ryoga?" she asked tentatively.

"Bwee."

"That is you then?" Akane found the edges of her mouth begin to tug into a grin, but she stifled the impulse, not wanting to break her promise, "You fall into the water and turn into a cute little..."

"Bwee!"

"Okay, okay, don't need to snap at me about it," Akane hastily amended, "I mean...well...I suppose it could have been worse, but still..."

"Bwee!"

"All right, it's pretty bad," Akane conceded, "I'll bet you've had lots of problems with people trying to capture and make a pet out of you, or...even worse than that, right?"

"Bwee," the piglet said in quiet resignation.

"So this is why you're out to kill Ranma, eh?" Akane found it harder to stifle the grin that kept tugging at her face, "And I'll bet the Baka doesn't even have a clue what he's done to you either. Well...fair enough. I can see how being small like that would be a problem..."

"Bwee."

"Hey, I'm not laughing at you," Akane was entirely serious as she said this, "I'm just trying to get used to the idea...I mean...you're pretty tough for a guy, and to get turned into something that...well, can you defend yourself at all while you're like that?"

"Bwee."

"Okay then," Akane said in resolve, "Then I'll look after you and protect you. You need a friend to look after you, so why don't you let me be your friend and I'll get you some hot water."

"Bwee?"

"Because I think you're a nice guy, and you clearly have had some bad breaks that you didn't deserve," Akane informed him, "Why? Is there a problem with me being your friend?"

"Bwee," the tone was uncertain, but then the pig lowered its snout and said, "Bwee."

"Hey, it's no problem for me," Akane said as she turned and sought out the long-  
handed net pole from its corner rack, "Can't have you running around naked, now can we? You really wouldn't want to go challenging anybody without your clothes on."

"Bwee?" the pig actually blinked in a nearly audible manner.

Akane stuck the pole into the pool and said, "Don't worry, when you change back, then I won't look. I'll respect your privacy and I won't go around telling people all about you, honest, though that Ranma is going to choke when I tell him about this..."

"Bwee!"

"Huh?" Akane said as she fished his shirt out of the water, then went next for the pants, setting them carefully down on the sides as she next went after his shoes and leggings, "You don't want him to know about this? But..."

"Bwee."

"I just mean that it's all his damned fault and..."

"Bwee."

"Oh come on now," Akane said, "You're being silly..."

"Bwee."

"Oh, so that's it, huh?" Akane mused as she set the net back in its corner rack, then went to fetch his soggy clothing, "You don't want him to know that you have a weakness. You think he'd exploit your curse if he knew about it?"

"Bwee!"

"Hmm..." Akane frowned, "You may have a point about that...he's baka enough to take advantage of anything in order to win a fight. I guess it wouldn't do to hand him more ammunition..."

"Bwee."

"Well, we can sort through all of the rest of this later," Akane remarked, "Right now I suggest we find an all-night public bathhouse, then I'll treat while you get yourself back to being human. Agreed?"

"Bwee," the piglet nodded in the affirmative.

"Then let's get started," Akane said as she finished winding his wet things into a neat little ball, "And what the heck, might as well have these smelly things get washed while we're at it. I'd ask Kasumi to do it, but...well...we need to talk a bit before I let you anywhere near the house. You're pretty strong and very destructive after all, and it wouldn't do for you to bet starting up any fights until we get this sorted out between you and Ranma..."

"Bwee?"

"Why?" Akane interpreted, "Because he's my sister's boyfriend, and while I don't much like the creep, I happen to know that Nabiki is hung up on him, so I can't have you trying to kill him and everything, at least not until we've had a chance to find other means of settling this..."

"Bwee," the piglet said in non-committal reply, but even as it trotted along at the side of the dark haired girl he was thinking about her short-haired sister, the one who had stood up for Ranma, and scowled a bit more darkly, wondering how his hated enemy could ever rate a woman like that for his iinazuke, and knowing beyond question that he did not like the implications...

Continued.

Comments/Criticisms/Cell-Phones for Anime Stars: shadowmane

The match between Ranma, Nabiki and the Golden Pair is on, but are our heroes skating on thin ice, or is there really a payoff at the end that will deepen (or break) the romance between this Ranma and his Nabiki? Tune in next time for: "Crash and Burn at the Wall of Love," or, "Cleaving the Couples!" Be there!

X -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

If you wish to check out my other works, Please check out my Fanfiction webpage at: ~ All related chapters of this series can be found there along with my other works. 


	9. Chapter 9

RanHearts09

The Horse and Butterfly

By Jim Robert Bader

(Inspired by the works of Rumiko Takahashi)

Chapter Nine.

Rude Impacts

WARNING-LIME ALERT!  
CONTAINS SCENES OF AN ADULT NATURE!  
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

"There I was with the Old Man,  
Felt pressured again, so off I ran!  
Young girl in an encounter,  
No possibility of getting what I need;  
She looked at me and she smiled,  
She said, 'Baka, you're such a child...'

"See the Horse and the Butterfly,  
Up in the air they like to fly,  
Horse and Butterfly...and though they had to try,  
Well, they rolled back down to the warm soft ground Laughing up to the sky...they don't know why...  
The Horse and the Butterfly...

(Heart-"Dog and Butterfly")

Kolhotz High School, Nerima, Circa 1992

"Well, are you two ready?" Kensuke asked as he and Aido met the pair from Furinkan outside of the High School gym.

"Yeah, pretty much," Ranma responded, "Had a little excitement the other day, but nothing to slow us down in out training."

"Excitement?" Aido arched an eyebrow.

"An old friend of Ranma-kun's came over to pay him a visit," Nabiki explained, "Seems they had a bit of a misunderstanding, but it's nothing to write home about."

"I dunno about that," Kensuke mused, "Misunderstandings around you tend to get pretty spectacular, Saotome..."

"Heh, got that right," Ranma grumbled, "Some guys won't get a clue if you try and beat it into them, but with any luck we won't be hearing from that jerk again for a while. He's got this problem with directions and..."

"An old friend, eh?" Aido mused skeptically, giving her counterpart a wry, inquiring glance, "Anything about this guy that I ought to know about? If he shows up, I'd like some idea of how to do the point spread."

"Other than the fact that he gave Ranma-kun here a decent workout?" Nabiki asked.

"Yeah, right," Ranma snorted, "Bad enough he tries to ambush me at my school, but then he shows up at the Tendo place and tries to pick a fight with me when I'm trying to get a good night's sleep. He was into his touch act for maybe about a minute, but then it started raining and he took off, like he was afraid he'd melt or something."

"Someone who actually stood a full minute against you?" Kensuke arched an eyebrow, "Sounds interesting, but you're sure you're rested enough for your big match? After all, you don't want to be off your game when you face off with Senzenen and Azusa..."

"Hey, no problem," Ranma assured them, "We got everything covered-huh?" he blinked as Aido tossed a package to him, then another one to Nabiki.

"A little present for you two," Aido smiled, "A matching pair of skating outfits to replace those dull, plain things that you've been wearing for practice."

"Matching outfits?" Nabiki blinked, staring at the bundle in her hands, "What do they cost?"

"Not a yen piece," Aido winked, "They were made by the Embroidery club as a fashion present to you both. In case you haven't guessed by now, there's a lot of students from our school, as well as yours, who are banking on you to put the Golden Pair in their place."

"No fooling?" Ranma asked, "You mean your guys are actually rooting for us?"

"School spirit and team loyalty aside," Kensuke smiled, "You've seen enough of what they're like that I'm sure you can understand why the guys at our school want to see Senzenen taken down a peg, while the girls are hoping you'll do a lot more to Azusa than give her a good slapping."

Nabiki's blinking eyes were almost audible as she tried to weigh in the idea of a "free" gesture from members of a rival student body, but then she looked again at the package and grew more than a little curious about how she would look in such a handmade outfit.

"You honestly mean you want us to wear these things?" Ranma turned a questioning look at Nabiki.

"Might as well if it means we can put on a good show," Nabiki said, "Here's hoping that we can at least make a good entrance."

"As long as you don't fall on your faces, we're sure you'll do just fine," Kensuke reassured them, "Now, the dressing rooms are this way, and there's less than half an hour to get ready, so I hope you warm up quick because this match will definitely be a lot more serious even than our fight a week ago."

"Heh, bring it on," Ranma said confidently, "I dusted Senzenen's ass the last time, and that ain't nothing next to what I'll do to him in a real match."

"Let's hope you feel that confident when you see the Golden Pair in action," Aido warned, "We have tried to prepare you, but...well...there's nothing like the hard, cold lesson of going face-up against them when they start pulling their act. You'll see what we mean when you get out there and see for yourselves."

"We'll keep that in mind," Nabiki reassured them, "But whatever they pull, I'm sure we'll prove just as much a surprise for them, especially if that Azusa twit makes another play for my ledger."

"I think you'll have a lot more than just your ledger to worry about before this is over," Kensuke sighed, "But don't say that Aido and I didn't try to warn you."

"In any event, go out there and give us a good show," Aido brightened, "The betting pool on the both of you is currently three-to-one against, but that's a lot better than it was when we went up against the Golden Pair ourselves."

"Three to one against?" Ranma blinked, "They really think Senzenen will do that badly?"

Nabiki sighed and gave the boy at her side a pat on the shoulder, "Let's just try out these outfits then go see for ourselves what those two are like, Ranma-  
kun, and keep in mind what's at stake if we lose here."

"Like I'd forget about a thing like that?" Ranma grumbled, remembering all too bitterly his own recent encounter with "Mikado the Molester," and not wanting a thing like that to befall his iinazuke...even if he would have denied harboring such feelings if pressed upon that very, very sore subject...

Ryoga?" Akane called out, "Ryoga, where are you? Don't tell me you got lost again already?"

It was beginning to dawn upon the youngest member of the Tendo household that her new friend came with baggage that was more than a bit unusual, considering that he turned into a pig when he got wet and had all the direction sense of a blindfolded panda. He was also quick to anger and tended to hold a grudge longer than almost anyone else she knew, but he seemed to calm down a lot when she encouraged him to think about whatever was upsetting him. In fact, whenever he did calm down, he could be a pretty nice guy, thoughtful and courteous and respectful towards Akane, only gritting his teeth in anger any time that he was even slightly reminded of Saotome Ranma...

...Which was all the more reason for Akane to find him before he started up another fight against her prospective brother-in-law, which would come again at the intense annoyance of her older sister, Nabiki. In the two days since she had first met him the lost-boy had managed to alienate almost her entire family against him, and his attacking Ranma in the middle of the night had hardly improved attitudes towards Ryoga, with even Kasumi frowning in distinct disapproval.

How ironic, then, would it be if they found out that said boy was-of all things-sleeping in her room the previous two nights, although not in the sense of anything either weird or perverted. It had all been Akane's idea since discovering how easily Ryoga could confuse even the simplest directions, which meant that keeping an eye on him meant having to have him close at hand, and in his cursed form he was much easier to manage.

Akane could only frown when she thought of the sarcastic things that Ranma might say if he were to learn about Ryoga's little "problem," made all the more complicated by the fact that it was Saotome's fault that Ryoga had his curse in the first place. Hearing the story that Ryoga had told her when she changed him back for the first time made Akane's heart fairly go out to him, especially when he came to the part of the "crazy redheaded girl and her runaway panda" being the ones who had knocked him into the Cursed Spring of the Drowned Pig. It took no imagination on her part to make the connection between those two and the two freeholders currently residing in their house, and it sounded just like Ranma to plow into somebody without even watching where he-or she-was going.

Hearing Ryoga describe his life since then made it very understandable just why he had such a mad-on about Ranma. Turning into a small black piglet made the fierce boy into a highly vulnerable walking target, and the number of times in which he had almost been caught and eaten had left him justifiably paranoid of each and every little encounter. The fact that his cursed form was rather "cute" (a term Akane kept to herself, not wishing to further upset him) had given her the idea about keeping him around as her "pet" so that he could hang around her house without destroying furniture trying to get after Ranma. The obsession with revenge that had driven Ryoga night and day for two years without relent made it difficult to reason with him in most normal conversations, but what surprised most was Ryoga's stubborn refusal to confront Ranma directly with the fact of his "crimes," especially in revealing his curse to his most hated enemy, even if it might have won him sympathy from the rest of the Tendo household.

Akane frowned in recollection of the words that he had used to get her to cooperate in holding back the information that she had gleaned about Ryoga, telling her that it was less than honorable to reveal a weakness in a fellow warrior to that fighter's sworn enemies and allies. To hear him talk it was all a part of the Warrior's Budo code of Bushido, which sounded to her ears like a lot of macho bull that could well have been spouted from the lips of that blowhard, Saotome Genma. Still and all, she respected Ryoga enough to agree to keep his "problem" a secret, at least until such time as it either became necessary to reveal his curse or Ryoga himself chose to reveal it.

In exchange for her silence, however, she did enact from him a promise not to wreck her house by picking fights with Ranma while they were both staying under the same roof. Ryoga was honorable enough to agree to behave himself like a proper guest so long as Ranma did not directly provoke him, and besides, (as Akane herself had suggested) being able to turn into something small and innocuous was a great way of spying out on Ranma to learn what he could about the pigtailed boy, which Akane had hoped might soften his anger a little. Perhaps in time, with the proper coaching on her part, she might encourage him to drop his angry act a little and be more tolerant towards his former school rival. She might even get him to smile a little if enough time and pressure were applied towards this end. She certainly did hope he would smile now and then as it might make him appear to be even more handsome...

Akane automatically quashed that thought before it was half-formed, not wanting to explore the possible implications. He was just a BOY, after all, a guy with problems whom she was trying to help out. At least he wasn't a lecherous, drooling pervert like Kuno, that much she knew for certain. In point of fact it had taken an awful lot of convincing on her part to make him agree to sleep in the same room with her, even after she assured him that she would not be changing in or out of her clothes anytime within his presence.

That first time when he had slept on the pillow next to her bed had been a restless time for them both, but in a way Akane had wanted to see if she could trust him to behave himself. He never once moved from the spot, seemed to just sit there all night and hardly roused a bit when she woke him up the next morning. He would only look at her when she assured him that she was "decent" and absolutely would not take a bath within her presence, only asked that she leave his clothes for him to dress in when he switched back to being a human.

In a way he was very quaint and mannerly, and Akane found herself amused at the sharp contrast between this boy and the horde of hentai who routinely stalked her every morning. It made her feel as if she could trust him even further, the first time that she could ever say that about any boy her own age, and the more she got to know him the more she came to see that there was more to his nature than a gentle-seeming facade that masked the rage of an angry berserker.

"So where the heck are you now?" she muttered aloud, unable to quite believe that she had been careless enough to let her new friend wander off by himself and get lost on an unfamiliar school campus. Kolhotz was certainly big enough that it could take over an hour for her to track him down, or maybe longer, and with her sister's skating match about to begin in another twenty-odd minutes...

All at once Akane halted, seeing something familiar on the school grass, which caught her attention. She hurried up to see for herself that her worst fears had been justified and that it was Ryoga's empty clothes which now lay on an empty section of sidewalk, right underneath a window out of which somebody probably dumped a pail of water, judging by the puddle surrounding the discarded garments. In Akane's eyes this could mean only one thing, to which point she said aloud, "Oh no...Ryoga! I don't believe this..."

But of course she was coming to discover what many a Jusenkyo-cursed victim tended to realize, that something in the nature of the curses all but insured that stray encounters with water were a given. It also meant that a small black pig was wandering around somewhere, and that Akane's job of finding him had just grown even more complicated...but then again, she wondered, where would one go to find a small black piglet in this place? He might have gone anywhere, or else someone else might have found him and snatched him up for whatever dire purposes they might imagine. Just thinking of the Science Club back at Furinkan was enough to give Akane nightmares. They could hook the Lost Boy up with some testing project, totally ignoring the fact that the type of pig that he represented did not come originally from Guinea!

"Ryoga...where are you this time?" she wondered, and not for the last time either, though had she known his real whereabouts her fears would have been more than justified, in fact, she might have preferred the Science Club to Ryoga's current position...

Ryoga had often sworn that he had seen hell, but now he was absolutely convinced that he had been woefully underestimating the place, because where he was at the moment definite set a whole new definition for "Hellish." The small cage in which he was presently trapped was resting on a shelf inside the girl's dressing room, and his captor-some frilly haired maniac with an ultra-kawaii smile-  
was beaming at him pleasantly and saying, "Well, little Charlotte, are you ready to help Azusa out in winning back Franscois?"

Charlotte? Aside from that being a French name, it also belonged to a girl! Couldn't this evident fruitcake even tell that he was a MALE pig, for Kami's sakes?

"Charlotte," she was going on as if perpetually caught up in her own fantasy world, "Little Azusa is so happy to have found you again. You will come back home with Azusa to be with all the rest of her friends, and then we will be soooo happy!"

Ryoga decided right then and there that he had no interest whatsoever in finding out what the rest of this girl's collection was like, because anything this certifiable loony was likely to find "kawaii" was bound to be as diverse and irregular as an Otaka with dyslexia. He had to get away from her the first chance he could get, and that meant getting out of his present cage before she decided to do something much worse than merely tie a ribbon around his neck!

"Soon, Charlotte," the kawaii idiot was just then saying, "Soon we show those two from Furinkan High what the Golden Pair is made of, then Miki can have thousandth kiss and stop bothering little Azusa about her collection. Not that little Azusa sees what makes this Tendo Nabiki person so special...it's not like she's anything to compare with little Azusa..."

Tendo Nabiki? Ryoga's eyes goggled. This was half of the pair who were going up against Nabiki and Ranma? Then that meant that she might be taking him to the arena itself, which meant that-if he could get free-then he might be able to take advantage of the confusion to...

All at once he subsided, deciding to bide his time and play coy while figuring out how to bust loose from his cage. At least he still had some of his strength while in his cursed form, not that his small size and four-legged stature allowed him to make much use of it, but given that he had the motivation to get free...then just maybe...

Revenge was near at hand, as was another strange emotion altogether new to Ryoga, but one that he would take his time to nurture. The important thing was not to give himself away by alerting Azusa to just how intelligent he actually was, let alone the nature of what she had so blithely put into a cage. Better to let her underestimate him, but once the opportunity came...then he'd show her a thing or two about what it meant to lock people up in cages...

"Oh my," remarked Kasumi as she, her father and Uncle Saotome took their seats along the visitor bleachers inside the converted Kolhotz indoor gym, "There certainly are a lot of people here come to watch this match, Father."

"Yes indeed," Soun agreed, "No doubt the reputation of the Anything Goes Ryu has drawn this much attention. Let us just hope that Ranma and Nabiki's training will go to good effect in meeting this challenge."

"Relax, Tendo," Genma assured, "I raised the boy to be the best there is at anything he applies himself to, and if he isn't good enough at first his ego won't let him take second best in anything. You'll see that he's a real credit to the Anything Goes Ryu."

"I hope that you are right, Saotome," Soun scowled, "I don't like the terms of this bet, not from what I've heard from Akane. The thought of someone kissing my little Nabiki..."

"You see?" Genma smiled with a gleam in his glasses, "That's the reason why the boy will go all out to defend her. No matter how much he protests the fact, he won't allow another man to lay a hand on his iinazuke."

"It's true, Father," Kasumi brightened, "You know that Ranma-kun is very fond of Nabiki, even if he is too shy to say so outright. I'm sure that everything will be just fine between them."

"I hope you both are right," Soun said in a somewhat mollified tone, but added darkly, "Because if he lets anything like that happen to my little girl..."

Unnoticed by the trio in the bleachers, Ranma-at this precise moment-gave a sharp sneeze without any warning, then frantically rubbed his nose and growled, "Man, this ice is making my nose itch! Does it have to be so cold in here?"

"Unless you want to try skating on water," Kensuke pointed out to him, "In which case you're more than welcome. Keep in mind that this is usually the swimming pool area of our gym, but for the sake of the Golden Boy, Senzenen, the school administrators were willing to turn down the thermostat and freeze the water, otherwise you'd be showing the crowd your girl half."

"Very funny," Ranma sniffed, rubbing his nose again before saying, "Bet you wish it was you going out there to dust his ass..."

"No, not really," Kensuke averred, "I had my chance and I was lucky to get out of it with my health. Just be careful you don't wind up worse than what happened to me and Aido."

"Geez, he can't be that tough, can he?" Ranma looked at his nominal "coach" and frowned, "A sissy boy like that who wears make-up?"

"Make-up?" Kensuke arched an eyebrow, "Are you kidding?"

"Hey, I saw him applying the junk to his face when I caught him doing it just now," Ranma assured his companion, his expression darkening as he remembered what else had been exchanged during the few minutes while he and Mikado had been glaring at one another, "Man...what is with that guy? Can't he think of anything besides kissing girls?"

"You mean there's something more important?" Kensuke asked him seriously, "Honestly, Saotome, don't you ever think about kissing Nabiki?"

"Hah?" Ranma looked hastily away, "W-Whatever made you ask a stupid thing like that?"

"Well, after all," Kensuke smiled, "She is a very pretty girl, and you obviously like her, and besides which, she is your iinazuke..."

"That-that's got nothing to do with it!" Ranma said a bit too hastily, "Just 'cause our Pops are idiots don't mean we go along with that or nothing...and besides, a mercenary like her would probably charge me for the..."

"Is someone talking about me?"

Ranma and Kensuke turned their heads at the same time, only to have both men do a double-take as they caught sight of Nabiki in the new skating outfit that she had just slipped into, Aido standing to her side and looking smugly proud of the hard work that she had crammed into thirty minutes, applying a light touch of make-up and other embellishments to enhance the other girl's natural beauty. To say that Nabiki was much prettier than before would be a mild understatement...in the most objective terms she looked absolutely stunning!

"Well boys?" Aido purred, "Am I a miracle worker or what?"

Kensuke forced his mouth to close after reeling in his tongue, and then in a low-voiced murmur he said, "Saotome...you are one lucky dog. I just want to say that for the official record."

"Hah?" Ranma absently replied, unable to look away from the vision of beauty that was looking back at him with a somewhat-less-than-her-usual-sardonic-  
expression.

"Cat got your tongue, Ranma-kun?" she asked, "You were saying something about me charging you for a favor?""

"Ah..." Ranma was suddenly very uncomfortable around the collar of his own skating outfit and so was not entirely aware of the complimentary effect that her less substantial outfit played off against his own manly profile. Kensuke and Aido were instantly aware, however, and exchanged appreciative looks, silently sharing a thought that the Embroidery Club had outdone itself with these particular fashion statements. The tasteful blend of contrasts with the colors of black, green and red, forming a matching set of serpentine emblems that went around one body and was taken up by the other, made one very much aware of the effect that was intentionally created, and added to the way that Ranma's tailored male suit set off his lean and hardened physique against the softer curves and low cleavage of his buxom companion...well, it was hardly surprising what a matched set they made just standing there facing one another in silent, mutual appreciation.

Nabiki found that her smile was slowly returning to her usual cat-like appraisal. Ranma looked particularly manly in his borrowed get-up, and if nothing else it would be nice to see him dressed property for a match. She was well aware that her own short-short dress showed off a considerable portion of leg and was nearly crotch-exposing, but the way her dress bunched up her breasts to further enhance the gulf created was nothing less than scandalous, and if her older sister ever saw her wearing something like this around the house, or even her father...well...it would not just be Ranma's jaw that would be hitting the tarmac.

(She's beautiful!) Ranma caught himself thinking, unable to muster up enough effort to stifle the impulse. It was really strange that he had never noticed before just now nice-looking Nabiki actually was, how perfectly classic were her features and how that dress gave off a good long detail of the way her body curved rather nicely, and the athletic trim of her waist and stomach...

Just then the moment was broken by the announcer calling out the Golden Pair's entrance, and as one Ranma and Nabiki turned their heads in time to see their nominal rivals appearing upon the ice together, the spotlight shining down on them and bedazzling the eye at the golden shimmer of their matching outfits. Azusa was even frillier looking than before, while Senzenen looked even more masculine, almost Bishonen, with looks so fine that girls in the bleachers swooned and their boyfriends glared with hateful expressions. The cheering section for Azusa, by contrast, had boys calling out her name and professing love to her, while their female companions just fumed and gave the fluffy haired girl a full range of murderous expressions.

"So that's their entrance, huh?" Ranma scoffed as the announcer was about to name them and herald their entrance, "C'mon, Nabiki, let's go out there and show them how it's really done."

"Ah...right," Nabiki said as Ranma absently reached out to take her hand, only to stare at the crowd that was about to cheer them on, even as Ranma marveled at how thin her wrist felt, and how fragile.

"Just like we rehearsed, okay?" Ranma said without turning to look at Nabiki, trying valiantly to get his mind back on track, remembering that this was about martial arts, not iinazukes.

Nabiki paused and waited for his silent signal, holding his hand in her own and thrilling to the power that she sensed within his fingers. All at once he started dipping low, which meant that she had to move forward in order to allow him to get one hand under her belly, at which point he would heave her up into a one-arm carry, which same he began to execute flawlessly...save for the fact that he misjudged his timing and put his hand a bit lower than expected.

"Awp!" Nabiki declared as she was suddenly hoist into the air with his hand perfectly positioned beneath her crotch, not her belly. Almost instinctively she thrust her legs as far apart as she could manage, almost horizontal to the ice with her left leg forward and her right leg stretched backward. Being a very limber girl, this was not a particularly difficult maneuver, but given that her awareness was centered entirely on where his hand was resting made her acutely conscious of the fact that he was holding her up by her panties!

(Huh?) Ranma thought to himself, (Why's she squirming all of a sudden? Does she want me to drop her or something? And...HEY! What gives? Is she wetting herself or something?)

Back at the entrance to the pool/icerink, Kensuke and Aido were also staring, the latter saying aloud, "Saotome...I never thought you'd have it in you..."

"Oboy," Aido murmured, "She's gonna kill him for sure over this one..."

"Oh my," Kasumi remarked, "Is Nabiki feeling all right? She looks a bit flushed...I hope she isn't catching a chill..."

"Saotome..." Soun softly growled.

"Well...the boy shows initiative," Genma replied, "You've got to give him that at least..."

(Hey...) Ranma's awareness wavered as he realized something about what he was holding, (She's soft up there...but what's going on? It feels almost like my fingers are going into her groin...but...OMIGAWD! She's swallowing my fingers-  
-!)

Nabiki's eyes got very round as she felt two digits pressing in past the parting lips of her outer labia, and all at once her squirming became even more intense as she felt those fingers sinking into her, going well past the hole that they had just punched through her panties, which themselves were riding high up her butt-cleft even as she automatically started lubricating down there, feeling a warm kind of excitement distract her from what else she was doing...

They had just completed nearly a full arch around the arena when all at once Ranma and Nabiki lost their balance and went tumbling onto the ice together, Ranma moving instinctively to position his body underneath that of the girl so that his partner landed heavily on top of him, and by some curious quirk her crotch came to rest on top of his face as her legs braced wide, her skates catching the ice and parting them in a split almost to her physical limit. Ranma reached up in a feeble effort to regain his bearings as he slid on his back across the ice, his exclamation totally muffled by the weight of Nabiki's crotch over his mouth, his hands unconsciously fumbling to grasp her by her chest just under her ribs, only to slide up even higher so that he wound up fondling her breasts.

Aido and Kensuke looked on in dull amazement while off to the side someone else (who had arrived just in time to see this) covered her face and groaned, "Ranma...you idiot...!"

She had been searching high and low for Ryoga and had decided to check inside the arena itself when she saw the start of the skating match, at which point she had elected to join her father and sister in the bleachers. Now...seeing the disastrous way that her sister and her boyfriend were skidding to a halt with one on top of the other, she could only groan in mingled sympathy and exasperation, even if she doubted it was entirely accidental. Just hearing the muffled silence of the room give way to a whole hearted outburst of laughter made her cringe inside as she thought of what Nabiki would be feeling. It was without a doubt the most humiliating thing that she had personally ever witnessed, and yet some part of her mind was inwardly tickled pink that it had befallen her mercenary middle sister, as if the fates were paying Nabiki back for all those compromising pictures...

"RANMA!" her father suddenly cried out, "WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS OUTRAGE?"

"Yeah!" Genma agreed as he cupped his hands over his mouth, "Don't you know that a man is supposed to be on top of his own fianc e?"

At the mention of the word "fianc e," the entire room went silent. Heads turned to look at them in surprise, at which point Akane felt like kicking the stupid panda into next week, even Kasumi evidencing her displeasure as she said her usual, "Oh my" comment...

The male half of the audience, meanwhile, broke their silence and started hooting out their approval of Saotome's actions, while the female half looked on askance in tacit disapproval.

Nabiki was too stunned by the weirdness of the situation to fully grasp the significance of just how awkward things looked from the perspective of their audience, but when she felt Ranma blowing hot air up into her muff she automatically stiffened, feeling the mix of erotic passions and intense embarrassment war for control over her mind as she debated the wisdom of moving...

Then Senzenen's voice intruded on the haze that had surrounded her mind, hearing the tall boy remark, "Well, that certainly was an original entrance...but unless you are trying to get the better of me, Saotome, then I will have to suggest that you allow the lady to get off you."

"Hah?" Nabiki reacted, coming out her daze as she felt Ranma's hands pressing lightly against her bosoms.

Azusa could no longer contain herself, her surprise giving way to a gleeful laugh that further deepened Nabiki's sense of growing embarrassment and humiliation, "You look so funny! You want to save that for when you get a room together?"

That decided the matter...no matter how good it felt to be held like that by the boy underneath her, there was no way in hell that Nabiki was going to be caught dead adding any more fuel to the already raging fire about herself and her iinazuke.

It took more effort to roll off of Ranma's face than she might have imagined, but as soon as she could scramble back to her feet she tried to stoically put her dignity back in order, even as she felt her cheeks flushing as red as cherries. Ranma gasped in relief as he sat upright but did not in anyway help his case by remarking, "Gah...I couldn't breathe down there...and what was that smell? Almost tasted like fish cakes..."

"Ranma," Nabiki said with deceptive calm as she waited for him to straighten out and fully regain his bearings.

"Yeah?" he asked as he turned to look at her with a curious expression.

SLAP!

Almost the entire sporting arena flinched in sympathetic reaction as Ranma went stumbling back to land face-first on the ice, now sporting a large red-mark the shape of a hand on the cheek where his fianc e had just struck him.

"OW!" he complained as he sat up again and began feeling his bruise, "What the heck did you do that for?"

"Get a clue!" Nabiki shot back, fighting the urge to turn around and storm off the ice since conceding the match this early was definitely not an option.

All at once Senzenen was at her side, holding her by one hand and her shoulder, "Fear not, Mademoiselle, such a boorish, ignorant clod is unworthy of your attention. He is beneath contemptible, taking advantage of your innocence to foully besmirch such a delicate flower with his rude conduct..."

"Excuse me?" Nabiki frowned, in no mood to be wooed by yet another pervert.

"HEY!" Ranma reacted.

"Allow me to dispose of this unworthy ingrate, for which I will but ask a single boon which I crave," Mikado said as he started to lean forward, tilting Nabiki back so that she had no chance of worming out of his reach while he brought his lips forward and attempted to kiss her.

"LET HER GO!" Ranma said as he shot to his feet, but before he could skate to her rescue he found a leg thrust into his path, sending him tumbling back into the ice as Azusa smiled and took pleasure at running interference for her skating partner.

"NABIKI!" Soun cried, looking ready to vault out onto the ice in his towering fatherly rage.

"Looks like Senzenen is going in for the kill this early," Kensuke sighed, "Saotome had his chance, but..."

"Just hold on a minute, Bro,'" Aido smiled, "I think Miki-boy has just underestimated his opponent."

Mikado was surprised to discover that something had intercepted his lips before they could claim the coveted kiss of his lovely 'victim.' All at once he noticed that he was leaning a bit further forward than he had intended, and then all at once he felt a knee going into his stomach. He was airborne before he knew it, thrown head-over-heels as Nabiki completed her backwards tumble then straightened herself up again with a smirk of accomplishment plain in her features.

Mikado was quick to recover his bearings and landed on his skates rather than his head, but as he straightened up once again everyone could see that he had something stuck to his lips, and as Mikado screwed his eyes to look he found a spoon attached there, resisting his efforts to pry it loose from his mouth.

"Huh?" Ranma said from his prone position, "What...?"

"Get real, Saotome," Nabiki held up a tiny bottle in one hand, "You think I'd let him have his way with me that easy? A little superglue should hold that in place until he gets it into his head that Tendo Nabiki is not that easy."

Kensuke goggled and said, "I...don't believe it..."

"What's not to believe, Bro?" Aido grinned, "I always said he was a stuck-up jerk with a silver spoon in his mouth, and was I right or what?

"Miki-chan?" Azusa blinked her eyes in an audible manner.

"Wow," Ranma straightened up again, "I'm impressed...and the way you threw him just now..."

"Hey, don't forget I grew up in a dojo," Nabiki assured him, "I may not practice as hard as you and Akane, but I do remember the basics."

"Miki-chan, are you all right?" Azusa asked as she came over to stand beside her partner.

"MMMMPPPHHH!" Mikado protested, attempting to pry the spoon loose by the handle, then thinking better about it as his lips were stretched to their limits without the spoon dislodging.

"What's that?" Azusa asked, "You want little Azusa to help out?"

"MMMPPPHHH!" the tall boy hastily backed away, making frantic declining motions.

"Ah..." Ranma found it hard to look at his iinazuke as he felt behind his head and said, "...about what happened...I mean...I didn't mean to...well...ah..."

"Hmph," Nabiki glanced away and lifted her nose while folding her arms over her chest, "A likely story."

"Hah...what do you mean?" it was Ranma's turn to blink.

"Like you don't already know?" she asked coolly, "Putting your hand up my dress, sticking your fingers were they weren't wanted...in most provinces they'd call that molestation..."

"Hey, I didn't mean nothing!" Ranma protested, "It was an accident, honest!"

"Hah, like I just fell off the turnip truck that I'd buy that one," Nabiki sniffed, "Try again, Saotome."

"Nabiki..." Ranma fumed, "What do you think I was trying to do? So I stuck my hand in the wrong place...it could happen to anybody..."

"It didn't happen to just anybody," Nabiki replied, "It happened to me."

"Well...what about you sticking your crotch into my face like that?" Ranma tried to say defensively, only to remember the rather pungent aroma that he had found rather...tasty...

"Me?" Nabiki bristled, "You think I did that on purpose?"

"Well, who landed on who there?" Ranma shot back.

"And what was with those hands coping a feel on me, huh?" Nabiki turned to glare at him, "For somebody who claims to have no interest in girls, Saotome, you can get awfully grabby."

"Hey, like I'd want to lay a hand on a Mercenary like you!" Ranma said as he reverted to more familiar territory, "You're probably gonna charge me an arm and a leg for that..."

"I might!" she shot back, "In fact-!"

"YYYYEEEEEEEOOOOOOWWWWWCCCCHHHHHH!"

"Oh, did that hurt, Miki?" Azusa asked innocently.

"YOU LITTLE DITZ! WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO DO, PULL MY LIPS OFF?"

"Well, at least you can talk now," Azusa replied without the least bit of shame in her voice, "And they're not too red, so you can still try and kiss her."

"Huh?" Ranma said as he and Nabiki stared at their nominal rivals.

"Oh my," Kensuke remarked from the sidelines.

"This is getting entertaining after all," Aido grinned, "I wish I'd thought of that glued spoon thing..."

Senzenen managed to get control over his bearings again, felt his mouth with his fingers then winced, then turned to Nabiki and said, "Touch to you, Madam. No one has ever bested me at my own game, but that trick will not work a second time, and when next we clench I will be expecting my reward to compensate for that rude tactic."

"Guess again, you Pervert!" Ranma rounded on the man with a deadly glare, "You ain't getting anywhere near to Nabiki!"

"You call me a pervert after the way you took advantage of her?" Mikado asked.

"AWK-that's got nothing to do with it!" Ranma said heatedly, "And you're not kissing Nabiki!"

"How absurdly amusing," Mikado said airily, "And what gives you the right to tell me such a thing?"

"I'm Saotome Ranma, and I say hands off, Buddy!" Ranma informed him.

"You don't say," Mikado mused, "And your word alone is supposed to stop me?"

"That's right," Ranma flared, "Because she's my iinazuke, and I'm not letting you have her! You try anything like that with her again and I'll kill you!"

"What?" Nabiki blinked, surprised at the vehemence of that declaration.

"Iinazuke?" Mikado lifted an eyebrow, "But you treat each other like you were strangers."

"That ain't got nothing to do with it!" Ranma insisted, "Nabiki is MY fianc e, and if you so much as touch her I'll break you in half!"

"Ranma-kun," Nabiki softly murmured in amazement.

"You're threatening me over her?" Mikado gently sneered, "Better men than you have tried doing that, and all of you met defeat at my hand."

"Not this time," Ranma made a show of cracking his knuckles, "You think you got what it takes to get by me, then bring it on Pretty-boy. Let's see how good you really are."

"You have asked for this, Fool," Mikado scowled, "And it's time I paid you back for the slight embarrassment that you dealt me the other day. May the Gods have mercy on your soul, because I will have none for you. Come Azusa, let's show these two why the Golden Pair cannot be defeated."

He started to move when his companion darted into his path and cried, "Jean-  
Paul! Jean-Paul! At last I find you!"

"Huh?" Senzenen asked before he rudely found himself tumbling back on his own hindquarters.

"Jean-Paul!" Azusa happily proclaimed as she knelt down to scoop up the glue-  
splotched spoon that she had so recently discarded.

"Man, is she a fruitcake or what?" Ranma asked blandly.

"Totally," Nabiki agreed, marveling that the fluffy haired girl could even attract an audience, let alone the militant following she heard thunderously calling out her name from the bleachers.

Senzenen got back to his feet and glared at his nominal partner, growling, "You know you totally spoil the effect when you do that? Get your mind back on business, we have a match to win here, or have you forgotten?"

"Oh?" Azusa turned a questioning look at him, then blinked her eyes and said, "Oh," and promptly stuck "Jean-Paul" down her own cleavage, "Okay, Miki, let's do it."

"Well," Kensuke remarked from where he was watching these proceedings, "It was a nice floorshow, but I guess things are about to get down to serious business."

"What a shame," Aido remarked, "I was really starting to enjoy things there...I just hope Ranma and Nabiki have a few more surprises up their sleeves or this could get messy..."

The two sets of couples squared off to face one another from opposite ends of the icerink, and then Nabiki edged closer to her partner and said, "Saotome...about what you said just now..."

"Yeah?" he grunted, "What about it?"

"Did you...really mean that?" Nabiki asked.

"What do you care?" Ranma asked, and then he started to move forward.

"I..." Nabiki hesitated then said, "Never mind," and followed his example.

"So," Mikado mused as he saw the other couple starting forward, "They're taking the initiative here. Bold move, but foolish."

"They won't look so good when we get through with them, Miki," Azusa smiled.

"Indeed, and I will take great pleasure in making Saotome eat his pledge," Mikado smiled, "Because we will show why we are the Golden Pair, and why it is folly to oppose us."

With that they started forward, Mikado and his partner moving instantly into attack position, but Ranma smiled as he sensed what they were about and instantly reached out to grab Nabiki by the wrist, saying, "Let's do maneuver one, Nabiki!" and without pausing in his forward motion he drew her into his arms then picked her boldly up into his arms, hurling her into the air so high that Nabiki barely had time to yelp as this was not a maneuver that they had rehearsed very often during practice.

"Eh?" Senzenen made his first mistake of the encounter and allowed himself to look up as the sight of a flying Nabiki proved to be a bit too distracting, and as such he failed to see Ranma accelerate forward, going low into a tight thrust with his fist flashing out and catching the taller boy's unprotected middle.

As Mikado doubled over Ranma moved in time to catch Nabiki on her downward descent, easily breaking her fall in his arms as his iinazuke gave a "Wuff!" of surprise and then instinctively threw her arms around him.

"There, that wasn't so bad, was it?" Ranma asked of his startled fianc e.

"Next time give me a little more warning..." Nabiki started to say when her eyes went wide again and she cried out, "Ranma-!"

She was too late, as it turned out, for Azusa-who had pulled a furious 180 degree turn came whipping up from behind the unprepared Ranma, then she launched herself into the air even before Nabiki had managed to catch her sudden attack, and since he was slowed by the presence of a girl in his arms he had no chance of avoiding her as Azusa came down on him with her knees aimed for the back of his head, tumbling both Ranma and Nabiki into the ice for a good twenty meters before they came to a halt at the far railing.

"Saotome!" Mikado exclaimed.

"He got in a good shot against Senzenen, but he didn't see even see Azusa's attack coming," Aido fretted, not wanting to admit that she was actually starting to get worried.

"Oh no, Nabiki!" Akane checked her instinctive impulse to rise to her feet and rush to her sister's rescue, hoping against hope that Ranma had enough sense to cushion the impact as Nabiki had no where near his level of constitution or damage resistance.

As it turned out Ranma had blunted the tumble for Nabiki, but mainly because he had instinctively wound himself into a ball and took the brunt of the ice on his own body. Nabiki felt bruised and battered and had a good idea of what a hockey puck would feel like in her position, but otherwise was not badly hurt when compared to what would have happened but for Ranma.

"Ow," she complained nonetheless, "I'm gonna sue someone over this..."

The annoying, chirruping laughter of Azusa caused Nabiki to glare up at her, and then she growled back, "What are you laughing about, you little Twit?"

"You're so funny!" Azusa chuckled, "The boy takes a hit for you and you wind up complaining..."

"What?" the anger drained away from Nabiki as she glanced down and said, "Ranma-  
kun?"

"Not so loud," Ranma moaned, "I'm trying to sleep here..."

Mikado staggered up, holding his hand to his side and glaring furiously at the semi-conscious Ranma, "You'll be sleeping permanently...once I get my wind back. No one...does that to Senzenen Mikado...and gets away with it..."

"Oh yeah?" Ranma grunted as he pushed himself against the ice, recovering with a speed that stunned even Nabiki, who had grown to expect such quick healing from her iinazuke, "Well tough, you'll get a lot more than that...if you try anything with Nabiki."

"Huh?" the fianc e in question responded.

"Oh man," Ranma rubbed the back of his head as he got unsteadily back onto his skates, "Can't you guys even fight fairly? A cheap shot in the back is for amateurs..."

"On that we can agree," Mikado straightened out and spoke more normally, "Which is why we will now show you the true meaning of what you are up against. We, the Golden Pair, have techniques that can put shame to the most devoted couples, for we are the Matchbreakers of the Ice."

"Matchbreakers of the Ice?" Nabiki repeated, "Did you just make that up or what?"

"Hardly," Mikado replied as Azusa suddenly leaped onto his back, placing her knees on his shoulders, "I will concede that you are a tougher opponent than I'd first estimated, but this time you face our ultimate attack, the Breakup Merry-  
Go Round, also known as the Goodbye Whirl!"

"Goodbye Whirl?" Ranma repeated, "Now I know you're making it up."

"Listen, Saotome Ranma," Mikado said seriously, "Once we have used this maneuver on a couple..."

"They have never stayed together!" Azusa cheerfully finished for him.

As they spoke this the Golden Pair started forward, prompting Ranma and Nabiki to tense, the latter being tactful to stay just off to the side and slightly behind her male companion as she knew implicitly that he was the tougher fighter.

All at once Azusa vaulted from the shoulders of her partner and landed on top of Ranma, who automatically moved out of her way, this time avoiding being pounded. However, Azusa then put her arms around his neck, causing Ranma to go rigid, unable to bring himself to lay hand on the girl, not even when Nabiki started blurting, "Hey! What are you-?"

"It's not me!" Ranma frantically called back, "You know I wouldn't...!"

"Left yourself open," Azusa cheerfully declared as she fell to her knees then slipped between Ranma's legs and tripped him forward.

Ranma gave a whoop and started to tumble face-first towards the ice, but this time Nabiki reacted by reaching out to catch him, halting his plunge as she held him in her arms and said, "Are you all...?"

All at once Senzenen-who had moved behind Ranma to catch his partner by the legs, then with an incredible display of physical strength he lifted the whole lot of them into the air, Nabiki finding herself born aloft as she clutched desperately to Ranma.

The announcer started to call out the name of the attack that the Golden Pair was using, but Akane had seen enough so far and cried out, "Hey! What are you creeps doing to my sister!"

The sound of a pig-like squeal rang out across the ice, catching Akane's immediate notice as she turned to stare at the announcer's table, and-much to her surprise-she saw a small black pig in a cage, and immediately she shifted her focus and said, "R-Ryoga?"

"Oh no," Kensuke groaned, "It's all but over now..."

"We did try to warn them about that," Aido sighed, "But those two bakas never could listen to instructions..."

"Hey, let go!" Ranma called out at the girlish Azusa, amazed that she could support his weight and that of Nabiki.

"R-Ranma-kun..." Nabiki nervously declared as she stared down at the ice, now a good three meters below her.

With an incredible display of power that even surpassed that of their lifting, Mikado began to spin around on one skate, gaining momentum as he started whirling faster and faster, which in turn caused Nabiki to almost fly out of Ranma's grasp, the centrifugal force whipping her out so that her feet hissed as her skates sliced the air and her arms felt as though they were being torn out of their sockets.

"Don't let go!" Ranma promptly reversed himself, "Nabiki-!"

"Hear me, Saotome Ranma!" Mikado called up, "Let her go and I will stop the Breakup Merry-Go-Round! If you don't, then the Goodbye Whirl will tear you both asunder!"

"Ranma...don't let go!" Nabiki cried in desperation.

"I won't!" Ranma responded through grit teeth, "If you fly off now you'll be crushed, Nabiki...I won't let that happen!"

Nabiki's eyes showed genuine panic as she realized the truth of that statement and decided a little arm pain was preferable to being smashed to a bloody pulp.

"I can't look," Aido declared, but nonetheless continued looking, "Is he letting go yet?"

"No," Kensuke said with genuine worry, "But he can't hold out much longer...at that speed he's going to be supporting tons of centrifugal force, and if it doesn't break his hold it could do real damage to both of their bodies.""

"The longer you hold out, the worse the sense of betrayal when you let her go, Saotome!" Mikado cried as he put even more spin into his maneuver.

"SHUT UP!" Ranma snarled, "I'M NOT LETTING HER GO!"

"R-Ranma-kun?" Nabiki asked, wondering if she had heard that right over the rush of blood that was pounding in her eardrums.

"I'm not letting you go!" he said fiercely, "They'd have to kill me first, but I ain't letting you get hurt!"

"R-Ranma-kun?" Nabiki repeated.

"Nabiki!" Soun cried out as he sensed his daughter's danger.

"Even the boy can't hold up to that kind of pressure forever," Genma direly predicted.

"Oh my," Kasumi remarked, "I hope Ranma will be okay...Nabiki is so fragile..."

All at once Azusa announced, "Miki...Azusa is feeling sick..."

"Just a little longer!" Mikado urged, "Saotome has to break soon..."

"Azusa can't wait..." and all at once the fluffy haired girl let go, sending both Ranma and Nabiki tumbling at the distant wall at deadly speed as if they had been shot out of a double cannon.

"Huh?" Akane cried as she got to the table where the caged Ryoga was presently imprisoned, and then she cried out, "NABIKI!" a cry that was more than echoed by her father.

(So this is it), Nabiki thought to herself as she tumbled in free-fall, (I wonder if it will hurt...much...)

Then all at once she heard Ranma calling out her name, and by some incredible feat of gymnastics he flipped her around, never having let go of her hands, and all at once Nabiki felt herself slam hard against something that felt like a bedding of iron, then everything went numb for a time as she felt the shock pass through her entire body. A long time later she felt as though she were being stuck with pins and needles, only to look up in surprise as someone was bent over her calling her by name.

"Nabiki...he, Tendo, are you all right?"

"Wha...what?" Nabiki blinked, then her eyes focused again and she said, "Aido-  
san?"

"I don't believe it," Kensuke said, "You're all right?"

"Ah...I seem to be," Nabiki responded after a moment, and to prove her point she started to sit up, as amazed as anyone to find that all of her parts seemed to be attached and moving.

"Thank the Kami," Aido sighed, then gave Nabiki a companionable smile, "Do you know how bad the point spread would be affected if you didn't make it?"

"Heh...glad I didn't cost you any money," Nabiki responded to the good-natured jest, but then realization hit her and she said, "Ranma-kun?"

Aido and Kensuke suddenly became very grim-faced, and together they turned to stare at the figure lying on the ice next to Nabiki, and suddenly she felt her own blood turn to ice, for looking at the wall just above them she saw the deep impression of a crater formed by the impact of a body. Just thinking of the amount of force that would be needed to create that, then staring down at the seemingly lifeless body before her made her tremble from within at the realization of what had happened.

"Ranma-kun?" she asked, and when he did not respond to her inquiry she raised her voice and cried out, "RANMA-KUN!?"

Continued.

Comments/Criticisms/Communiqu s: shadowmane

Is this the end for Saotome Ranma? (Be an awfully short series if that were the case, eh?) Nabiki and the others learn the answer to this and other surprises in our next exciting installment: "Crushed on Ice," or, "Shaken, Not Stirrups!" Be there!

X -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

If you wish to check out my other works, Please check out my Fanfiction webpage at: ~ All related chapters of this series can be found there along with my other works. 


	10. Chapter 10

RanHearts10

The Horse and the Butterfly

By Jim Robert Bader

(Inspired by the works of Rumiko Takahashi)

Chapter Ten.

Shaken But Not Disturbed

Nexus of Worlds-Limbo,  
Time Patrol HQ, Station #317

"Well, another mission, another casualty toll," said Time Agent Saotome Ranma as he and his companions strode up to join Nabiki and her chief assistants at their cubicle, "Sorry about the mess we left behind, Nabiki, but..."

"Never mind that, Ranma-kun," his wife declared, giving both her husband and their adopted daughter the look, which same caused the trio to halt in their tracks and do a collective mental back pedal, "We need to talk."

"Uh oh," Ryoga murmured to his partner, "I know what that means..."

"Me too," Ranma gulped, "What did we do this time?"

"You mean besides blow up a bunch of stuff and kill a lot of bad guys, Pop?" said the perky redhead at the side of the two older men.

"Yeah, besides that," Ranma said, clearing his throat as he said, "Ah...Nabiki-  
chan..."

"Yes, Ranma-kun?" she purred, her eyes boring holes into the back of his skull as if daring him to make a full confession.

"...If it's about us taking Ranko to go visit the old haunts," Ranma began, "We kinda thought...well...we'd unwind a bit after all that excitement and..."

"Ah...Pop?" the redheaded teenaged girl leaned close to her father's side and said, "You really wanna bring that up around Mom? Suppose she asks about Meiko...?"

"Just let me do the talking, Kid," Ranma murmured back, "Standard operating procedure."

"Check," Ranko agreed, "Besides, you got more hit points than me, Old Man."

"Yeah, and I'm probably gonna need them," he straightened out again and coughed a bit before saying, "Nabiki-chan...?"

"We'll have to talk about that another time," Nabiki replied in tones that caused both her husband, adopted daughter and best friend to collectively gulp in dread, "Right now we have a more urgent matter to discuss...that is...after Ryo-chan and Gos here make their own informal confession."

"Huh?" Ranma looked towards the brown haired girl and the slightly built technician beside her, "What have you two clowns been doing this time?"

One could sense the relief in his voice at having the subject of his recent activities be momentarily diverted elsewhere on other likely parties, but nonetheless his focus coming to rest on his wife's two most trusted aides was cause enough for any mere mortal to quail. After all, one the most dangerous human-shaped force of destruction known to man or mother nature turns his gaze on you, it is a good time to worry.

Ryonami cleared her throat first and said, "Ah...well...it really isn't all that big a deal, Ranma-kun..."

"Um...yes," Gosunkugi agreed, "It was just a fairly minor, almost routine matter...sort of like a bet that Ryo-chan and I were having..."

"A bet?" Ranma fairly bristled, "You don't mean...one of those things?"

"If, by that, you mean to infer an altered timeline set apart from the baseline that we know by the slight alteration of one or two seemingly minor and random events," Nabiki replied, "Then you have got it in one. These two clowns monkeyed around with a revised timeline and brought about some rather significant changes all to test a little theory they had...and three guesses what the subject was?"

"Um," Ryoga spoke up hesitantly, "You mean they set it up so Ranma here doesn't marry Akane?"

"Bingo!" Nabiki declared, arching her voice decidedly as she added, "And now guess who wound up as Ranma-kun's brand spanking new fianc e?"

"But...I don't understand, Mom," Ranko declared, "I thought you'd like that if there was a timeline where you got to be the primary iinazuke."

"Normally yes," Nabiki replied, "But as for the circumstances under which my younger counterpart got engaged to a sixteen year old Ranma-kun...well...have a look at the monitor here and see just how this timeline's been shaping up during your absence."

"Huh?" Ranma blinked as his attention turned to the holographically projected display hovering in the air over his wife's work station, and then his expression became one of surprise as he declared, "Hey! Isn't that the sporting arena where me and Senzenen had that match...?"

"Really?" Ranko also stared at the image in fascination, "You fought against Coach Senzenin, Pop? Wow...I never heard about that..."

"It wasn't one of your father's most sterling moments, Ranko-chan," her uncle Ryoga murmured, "But I remember that match too...in fact, I was the bone of contention for your mother and Senzenin..."

"Hey, it wasn't all about you, Porky," Ranma declared, "In fact, looks like things happened pretty much the way I remember...only...Nabiki? That's you in that outfit?" his eyes faintly goggled.

"Get your tongue back in your mouth and watch, Mister," his wife sternly ordered, hiding the slight smirk that crooked along the edges of her mouth, "Things are about to get interesting, and from the looks of things I think my younger self is finding out the hard way that there can be casualties to every battle..."

Kolhotz High School Gymnasium/Arena Nerima, Japan-Circa 1992

"RANMA-KUN!" the cry caused even Akane to feel her blood turn cold as she stared across the ice at her older sister, holding in her arms the small black form of a pig who was also staring with a round-eyed expression.

"Uh...miss?" one of the announcers at the table said, "Do you mind not taking the pig? It belongs to Azusa and..."

"ASUZA?" Akane shot a glare at the man that silenced him completely, "No way! He belongs to me! She hasn't any right to my friend!"

"Friend?" another of the bruised and battered boys at the table inquired.

"That's right!" Akane declared, "He's mine...you want to make something of it?"

The trio at the table immediately assented that they did not want any more trouble. They had already make the mistake of attempting to oppose her recovering of Ryoga, and they paid for it with injuries that she had meted out for their troubles.

"Well, good," Akane declared as she turned her back on them, "It's your own fault you tried to stop me without waiting to hear my explanation. Let that be a lesson to you about taking stolen property that doesn't belong to you, and when I get my hands on that Azusa I'll make sure she gets that loud and clear, you got me?"

The three young men nodded their heads in profuse agreement, for as much as they idolized Shiratori Azusa, the dark haired girl before them was far more scary!

Akane dismissed these clowns from her mind as she turned back to lend her sympathy to her grieving sister. As much as she had never really liked Ranma, the fact that he had obviously sacrificed himself to save Nabiki did a lot to redeem him in her eyes. Say what she might about the rude, obnoxious pervert, at least he died a hero, which was more than she could say for Senzenen Mikado when she paid him a little much-needed vengeance...

"Saotome?" her father, Soun, was asking tensely as he gripped his friend by the shoulder.

"Now Tendo-kun," Genma tried to reassure his friend, "The boy's probably just resting...he wouldn't let a little bump that that get to him, believe me."

"Oh my," Kasumi remarked, "I certainly hope you are right about that, Ojisama, or Nabiki will be so hurt..."

"And what will happen to our schools if our children can't unite the houses?" Soun cried as he shook Genma by his lapels with great distress in his expression.

"C-Calm down, Tendo-kun!" Genma frantically protested, "Why don't I go down there and check on the Boy for myself...I'm sure he's only faking..."

"Nabiki-chan," Kasumi sighed, gently dismissing the two older men as her heart went out to her younger sister whom she intuitively knew had to be going through several kinds of hell, and for once without a sister's comforting shoulder to lean upon as she contemplated the possibility of losing her iinazuke forever...

"Ranma-kun...why?" Nabiki asked, "Why did you do it, you Baka? You got hurt for my sake...why?"

"I think you know the answer to that one," Kensuke gently murmured.

"No matter what else you can say about Saotome," Aido gently added, "He cared enough about you to risk his own life. I'm sorry...I wish I could do more to help, but..."

"No," Nabiki felt tears in her eyes, and for once she looked nothing like the mercenary that she was often called by her fianc , "You Baka...you idiot...how could you do this to me? I'm...I'm not worth it, Ranma...I should have let go...I..."

"So...he didn't let go," another voice intruded, "The first one to defy the Goodbye Whirl, but he paid the price just the same. No one could survive such a landing, every bone was doubtlessly crushed in his body..."

Nabiki suddenly felt her stomach churn as she heard that arrogant, preening voice of self-contentment, and her hands balled into fists as a growing anger started to flare into raw fury.

"Senzenen," Kensuke growled, "Don't you have any sense of decency?"

"Yeah," Aido snarled, "Give us all a break and go off somewhere and die, will you? I'll be happy to sell you the rope."

"Absurd," Senzenen sniffed, "I can salute him as a gallant enemy, and I acknowledge the great courage he displayed in protecting his iinazuke, but in the end he fell to the superior opponent..."

"Shut up!" Nabiki snarled, squeezing her eyes tightly as she fought to halt the flow of her tears, not wanting to show such weakness.

"Eh?" Senzenen asked as he stared at the woman whose lips he still coveted.

"You're nothing like him," Nabiki said with great deliberation, "You're just a stuck up, preening, fancy-dressed dandy with delusions of godhood, and you're not even half the man...that he was..."

"Oooohhh..." Azusa said just then, "Azusa doesn't feel so good...Azusa dizzy..."

With that the frilly haired girl tumbled onto her back and lay there still while the world continued to whirl all around her.

"Do you hear me?" Nabiki turned her rage towards Mikado, "You're nothing compared to him! Ranma-kun was willing to fight to protect me...but what do you fight for except your own damned ego?"

"I...what do you mean?" Senzenen frowned, "Are you saying that you find him more noble than Senzenen?""

"Yeeessss!" Nabiki stressed the word as if addressing a small child, "When compared to a pampered child like you, Ranma-kun was like a prince in shining armor..."

"Is that...a good or a bad thing?" the alleged corpse asked for himself.

Nabiki all but jumped as she stared back down at the recumbent boy laying on the ice beneath her and for a moment words utterly failed her.

Not so with Kensuke, who managed to gasp, "You're alive?"

"Whoah!" Aido blinked, "Holy resurrection..."

"You live?" Senzenen asked, then frowned, "Or were you only pretending to be dead?"

"Ah, just resting up to get my wind back," Ranma smiled up at Nabiki, "Sorry to disappoint you, but I needed a few seconds to recover...you're heavy."

"Y-You...you...!" again words failed Nabiki, and she was suddenly torn between a desire to strangle or embrace the boy who had given her such a start.

"I don't believe it," Kensuke remarked, "You really are indestructible..."

"Naw," Ranma reassured them, sitting upright under his own power, "A little blow like that ain't enough to slow me down, see?"

With that he flipped off of the ice and back onto his feet, only to freeze up with his face contorting into a make of pain and shock, as though the effort had sent a tremor through his entire body.

"Uh...are you okay, Ranma-kun?" Nabiki asked, still dazed to even find him capable of moving.

"Gah...sure..." Ranma winced as he tried to ball his fists and act resolute, though the effort of even slight movement clearly was paining him beyond normal endurance, "I'm still...gonna get even...with that bastard..."

"Look father," Kasumi smiled, releasing a breath that she had been holding without knowing that she had been holding it all this time, "Ranma-kun is all right...um...well...mostly..."

"Thank the Kami!" Soun exclaimed, "The houses will be joined after all! Isn't that great news, Saotome? Saotome?"

Genma looked up from where he had been in the process of buying himself some ricecakes from a vendor, seeing the angry glower of his best friend turned in his direction.

"Saotome!" Soun all but shouted, taking off at a run as Genma hastily chose the better part of discretion, "Can't you for once put family honor above feeding your stomach?"

"Oh father," Kasumi sighed, quietly reflecting that some things were much more predictable than the weather...

"I salute your tenacity, but your bravado is without merit," Senzenen remarked, "Even though you seem to have miraculously survived our attack, it is clear that you are too hurt to even move without assistance. Too bad, I was so looking forward to crushing you more thoroughly, but instead I must be content with declaring myself the obvious victor, for which I will now claim the spoils of this match."

"Get stuffed!" Ranma growled through grit teeth, "I ain't giving up now, and if you touch her..."

Nabiki sighed, lowered her head and said, "Okay, fine, whatever."

"Huh?" Ranma blinked.

"What was that?" Kensuke asked.

"What do you...?" Aido began to say when Nabiki continued.

"I'll concede...you can have your stupid kiss, just...no more already," the middle Tendo sister said with a tired sigh, "Just spare me the macho bull act..."

"Nabiki?" Ranma tried to turn his head towards her but could only move his eyes her way by a fraction.

"I see," Mikado mused, "So...you would throw in the towel to spare his life, to say nothing of the humiliation of another thrashing. Very well, I accept your terms, fair maiden, although I would rather you swoon to me for much different reasons..."

"Nabiki!" Ranma did manage this time to crane his head as he looked in shock at his iinazuke.

"Please stop pushing it, Ranma-kun," Nabiki pleaded, folding her knees before her and sitting in the demure way of a "proper" Japanese women, "I know how badly hurt you are, and you took that hit for me. If you go on as you are you really might be more seriously injured and I...I can't have that on my conscience."

"But Nabiki-!" he protested.

"Please?" Nabiki turned her eyes up towards him with a look of sincere pleading written large in her expression, "Do it for me. Let me repay my debt to you for saving my life in my own way, Ranma-kun. I...I can't stand the idea that you could be crippled or injured..."

"Just a moment," Kensuke suddenly spoke up, "I'm sorry, Tendo-san, but I think I've heard just about enough."

"Right," Aido agreed, "We can't let you two sacrifice yourselves to deal with this bully. Leave them to us...after all, the Golden Pair are our problem."

"You two?" Senzenen scoffed, "Don't make me laugh! We defeated you easily the last time you tried challenging us on the ice..."

"Yeah, I know," Kensuke glowered, "And it's stuck in my craw ever since. I've had to live with the shame of what you put me and Aido through all these months since our bout, but no more! This time I'm wiping that arrogant smirk off your face once and for all, Senzenen!"

"Yeah," Aido agreed, "And I still owe you for what you did to me big time, Shiratori! Kensuke-kun's not the only one here with an ax to grind with you two!"

"Hey...wait a minute!" Ranma protested, "I ain't given up yet...!"

"Oh yeah?" Nabiki reached out with her index finger and merely tapped Ranma in the rib cage. All at once he doubled over in pain, to which she just sighed and said, "Like I said, Ranma-kun, don't overdo it."

"Leave this to us, Saotome," Kensuke said gravely as he squared off to face Senzenen, "You've shamed me enough by standing up to this jerk, now my pride as a Martial Artist won't let me rest until he's face-first in the ice and dusted!"

"The honor of Kolhotz High School is at stake here," Aido agreed, "We're let these two trash our reputation enough with their antics, but now they're gonna learn what real school spirit feels like!"

"Oh?" Azusa asked, "Why is everybody so mad at little Azusa? She only wants to..." all at once she looked to the side as the announcer started calling out for the change in sparring partners, when her eyes came to focus upon the empty cage sitting upon their table, at which point she cried out, "Aaieeee! What happened to Azusa's little Charlotte?"

"Charlotte?" Ranma winced, "What's that ditz going on about this time?"

"I think she means that little black pig we saw her bring in earlier," Nabiki frowned, "Say...didn't that piglet look kind of familiar?"

"What, you mean like the one Akane brought in the other day?" Ranma asked, then winced as the slight motion of his body sent another wave of spasms coursing all throughout his nervous system.

"You dare speak to me about the honor of Kolhotz?" Senzenen asked as he stood ready to face his new opponent, "After I've brought victory after victory at the doorstep of our school?"

"Yes, at the cost of making us a laughing stock because of your womanizing behavior!" Kensuke shot back, "Don't you know that the male students of our school can't go anywhere without being taunted with the label of 'Womanizer,' while the girls hear cracks about rampant kleptomania and make a point of grabbing up their belongings?"

"You should thank us that we are feared and respected throughout the length and breadth of Japan," Senzenen countered, "But then again, what would you know about school reputations, Nail-Biter?"

"That's right, go ahead and insult my school, Rich Boy," Kensuke smiled as he held up a hand full of his trademark iron nails, "But you won't be laughing much when you start dancing to my new tune."

"Hah, you tried that tactic with me once already, fool," Senzenen replied, "What makes you think this time will be any different?"

"Just because," Kensuke explained, then promptly placed the nails in his mouth and started loudly chewing, grinding them into iron bits, at which point he commenced to spitting them out at the ice where Senzenen had been standing.

"Hah, too slow as always!" Senzenen taunted as he skated backwards, moving into a rapid figure-eight as he dodged the nails that struck at the ice in rapid staccato fashion, "And now the counter-WHOOF!"

The handsome boy's intended charge came to a rude and abrupt end as the ice gave way beneath his feet, plunging him into the swimming pool and the icy water a foot beneath where they had been standing.

"Let that be a lesson to you, Mikado the Molester," Kensuke smirked, "Not all attacks are aimed at you directly, and breaking the ice is a Yamashina Ryu specialty..."

"WILL SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP LITTLE AZUSA FIND HER MISSING CHARLOTTE?" Azusa wailed in a plaintive-if-angry fashion.

"What, you mean that little pig of yours?" Aido reached into her leotard and pulled something out from the gulf of her cleavage, "Does he look anything like this?"

"Charlotte!" Azusa made a grab for the outstretched object, only to pause as she realized that she was holding a small stuffed animal in her hands, at which point she said, "This isn't Charlotte...?"

"BINGO!" Aido grinned as she whipped out a wooden mallet from seeming nowhere and used it to clobber the frilly-haired Azusa in the back of her noggin.

"Whoah," Ranma remarked, "That was some sneak attack..."

"Good misdirection there," Nabiki agreed, "But where on earth did you find that wooden mallet?"

"Trade secret," Aido winked, "And after a while you just stop asking."

"Can't say I'm sorry to see that little twerp get what's coming to her," Ranma remarked, "But how long do you think Senzenen can hold out underwater?"

"Long enough to teach him some humility, I hope," Kensuke replied, "Don't worry, I won't let him drown, but that icy water ought to cool down his ardor a little so maybe-WHAAT?"

All at once there were a number of sharp raps on the ice around Kensuke, forming a rough circle, then all at once the ice he stood upon upended, flipping over and dumping the rangy boy into the very icy water in which he had deposited Mikado. To everyone's mutual surprise Mikado appeared clinging to the underside of his makeshift ice floe, shivering like a leaf in an ice-storm.

"C-C-Cold...sooo cold...!" he stammered through clenched teeth.

"Gah!" Ranma cried out in dismay as he got splashed with a spray of icy water, immediately triggering his curse so that he began to shrink in size and dimensions. Instinctively Ranma-chan threw her arms over her head and face to cover for the transformation, but had anyone been looking her way her secret would likely become a moot point to all concerned parties.

"Kensuke-kun!" Aido cried in sisterly dismay, sensing her brother's immediate peril.

"Look out!" Nabiki and Ranma-chan called out together, causing Aido to spin about and look in dismay at Azusa-who had miraculously recovered herself and was now sporting the mother of all giant mallets which she aimed towards the defenseless Aido.

"You shouldn't take your eyes off little Azusa!" the kawaii skater declared as she attempted to smash Aido like the proverbial bug, but a figure moved to intercept the mallet, and all at once it was knocked loose from her hand by an angry Akane, who stood now defensively between Azusa and her intended target.

"Akane?" Nabiki said in surprise, "What are you doing here?"

"I came to help of course," Akane responded without taking her eyes off of Azusa, "Since neither one of you can fight at the moment, allow me to uphold the honor of the Anything Goes school. And while we're on the subject...catch!" she threw a very large towel towards Ranma, who caught it one-handed and immediately used it to cover over her head.

"Thanks," Ranma-chan called from beneath her concealment, "That's one I owe you..."

"That's okay," Akane replied, "Nabiki can just put it on my tab."

"I will?" Nabiki blinked in some confusion.

"RAN-MA!" an angry voice declared, causing both the pigtailed girl and her shorthaired companion to cringe reflexively as they knew by now that this signified trouble.

To their surprise, however, Ryoga dropped down from the overhead rafters and aimed his fist not at them but at the ice itself directly over the place where Kensuke had vanished. The ice shattered as Ryoga vaulted away, managing not to get wet in the process, though when his feet touched down on the ice he immediately lost his balance.

"GAH!" Kensuke cried as he broke free and gasped for air, "Cold-Freezing!"

That galvanized Nabiki, who turned to Ranma-chan and said, "We've got to get him out of there or the hypothermia could kill him!"

"You don't gotta tell me that twice," Ranma-chan agreed, deciding to risk exposure by moving to the edge of where the ice was still solid and reaching out a hand to grip the helpless Kensuke. Aido and Nabiki immediately moved to take Ranma-chan's other hand and provide her with much-needed assistance and traction. Together they pulled the half-frozen Kensuke clear of the ice where upon he started shivering profusely, every bit as much as Mikado, whose teeth were chattering worse than a pair of castenedas.

"Ranma...where did you go?" Ryoga demanded as he fought to regain his footing on the ice, then saw the figure with the towel over its head bending down to assist the other boy and at once snarled, "Ranma...now we finish this!"

"Ryoga-kun!" Akane snapped, "We don't have time for that...!"

"There's always time for revenge!" Ryoga snarled as he snatched the towel away, only to halt with his fist in mid-motion and stare at the unfamiliar face revealed from beneath it, "Huh? Ah...who are you?"

"Oh...ah...silly boy," Ranma-chan feigned innocence, "Who do you think I am?"

"Later!" Aido snapped, "We've got to get Kensuke warm and quick or he's have frostbite!"

"Right," Nabiki said as she turned to the redhead, "Ran-ah-Ranko, could you give me a little hand here?"

"Ranko?" Ranma-chan repeated, "Who's...?"

"Don't be dense, Ranko-CHAN," Aido said with emphasis, "Do what your cousin says and help us get Ken-kun here to the school lockers."

"Ah...all right," Ranma-chan/Ranko replied, realizing that time was of the essence and that fighting with Ryoga just then would be largely counter-  
productive.

"Just leave everything to Ryoga-kun and me, right Ryoga-kun?" Akane risked a smile and a glance in his direction.

"Eh?" Azusa turned to the lost boy as the two other girls dragged a helpless Kensuke from the ice, and then her gaze seemed to focus upon the peculiar collar that he was presently sporting, which prompted her to cry out in delight, "Charlotte! Charlotte! I've found you!"

"Nani?" Ryoga flinched as he stared at the very girl who had so recently become his tormentor.

"Hey, you leave Ryoga-kun alone, you!" Akane snapped, "Just who do you think you are, taking other people's property and locking poor P-chan up in a cage?"

"P-chan?" Ryoga blinked, "Who's...?"

"You want to take little Azusa's Charlotte away?" Azusa scowled (albeit in a very kawaii manner), "You're a very bad person!"

"Shut up, you Thief!" Akane snarled, "It's about time somebody taught you some manners-huh?"

All of a sudden she discovered that Senzenen Mikado had just made a miraculous recovery and was standing next to her and taking one of her hands in his own with a starry-eyed expression.

"Such fierceness and beauty in one so demure and gentle," he fairly radiated charm (which might have accounted for how the icy water had evaporated so suddenly from his person), "Those eyes, that face, that delicate chin...your beauty has captivated me and I stand bewitched within your presence."

"Huh?" Akane repeated herself, wondering why this handsome fruitcake was coming on to her all of a sudden.

"Hey you!" Ryoga protested, "What do you think you're-?" but his first step forward proved to be a mistake as he lost his balance again and went tumbling backward onto the ice.

"Ryoga-kun..." Akane started to say when all at once she found herself bent backward into the very same swoon that had almost claimed her sister earlier, Mikado poised above her with a rakish smile upon his lips as he once again attempted to seduce her.

"A-Akane...?" Ryoga gasped, fighting the feeling of helplessness as he attempted to regain his bearings.

"Forgive my impertinence but I cannot help myself for yielding to such temptations," Mikado continued, "Permit me to bestow upon you my coveted thousandth kiss, which has well and truly been saved for such a delicate..."

All at once her knee connected with the side of his face, and Akane worked her way free with a backflip that brought her ice-skates underneath her, and unlike Ryoga she managed to remain standing.

"Get a grip, creep!" Akane declared, "I've been fighting off perverts like you for months, and I'm not about to let you or anyone else do to me what you tried to do to my sister!"

"Oh my," Mikado remarked as she felt his bruised chin, "I do believe that the maiden is shy..."

"Sounds more like you make her sick," Azusa remarked before smiling at Ryoga again and saying, "Charlotte...you're so talented! How did you become so big all of a sudden?"

"Gahhh-you're mistaken!" Ryoga blurted out, "I'm not your Charlotte or anything like that! My name is Hibiki Ryoga, and I'm nobody's pet Charlotte!"

"No, you're little Azusa's Charlotte, see?" the frilly skater pointed at his neckline, "You have little Azusa's collar which she locked around you with this key," and she pulled said key out from the middle of her own cleavage.

"Gaaaah...the key!" Ryoga lurched for the object in question, but Azusa dropped down and passed between his legs and tripped him forward.

"Ryoga-kun!" Akane cried as she automatically reached out to try and catch him, and thereby committed the exact same tactical error as had her sister.

Mikado moved into position and gripped his partner's ankles, then once again he heaved the lot of them aloft once again and cried, "And now once again...the Merry-Go-Round Couple Cleaver...!"

Nabiki glanced up as she heard the roar of the crowd in the arena signify that important developments were going on behind them, but then she shrugged her shoulders and turned back to regard Kensuke, who was presently thawing out in the locker room Jacuzzi.

"Oh man!" he was wincing, as the whirlpool of warm water swirled over his now-  
naked body, "Pins and needles...definitely getting back my circulation..."

"Well, that's good," Ranma-chan responded, "You were almost as blue as a fish on ice for a while there, Buddy. You sure you're gonna be all right?"

"Oh yeah," Kensuke smiled, "Of course if any lovely young ladies care to climb in with me to give me a full body massage, then I'm pretty sure I'll recover that much swifter."

"He'll be all right," Aido assured the other two girls before glaring at her brother, "Honestly, Kensuke-kun, get your mind out of the gutter. You really think Ranma and Nabiki here are gonna fall for a line like that?"

"Hey, it couldn't hurt to ask," Kensuke made a warding gesture as if expecting to get hit, "I mean...I know better than to ask...I mean...you're a guy, and she's your iinazuke, but still..."

"That's right," Ranma-chan replied, "She's my iinazuke, and what the heck are you thinking? You think I'm some kind of a pervert just 'cause I turn into a girl when I get wet?"

"Weeeelll," Kensuke weighed his options VERY carefully before replying to that, "I know you're a pretty stand-up guy, Saotome, but you have to admit that...well...with looks like yours...a guy can be tempted to forget that..."

"Yeah, right," Ranma-chan sniffed before turning to Nabiki and saying, "What is it with this body? You think the curse makes guys go nuts over me, 'Biki?"

"Actually," Nabiki replied (electing to ignore that hated nickname as she was still concerned over his condition), "Even I have to concede that you do present a rather tempting package for most guys, Ranma-kun. You ever take a good, hard look in the mirror?"

"Not unless I have to," Ranma-chan replied with a faintly disgusted expression.

"By the way," Aido stared at the redheaded girl, "You seem to be moving around just fine since you transformed, Saotome. Any soreness in your body?"

"Nope," Ranma-chan flexed an arm and smiled confidently, "I'm fit as a fiddle. Weird...guess maybe when I change into a girl all the hurts in my guy form go away, huh?"

"Let's test that theory," Nabiki said as she dipped her hand into the whirlpool then splashed her iinazuke with the water, causing Ranma-chan to revert back to her guy form.

"Hey, give me a warning next time you wanna do that!" Ranma-kun sputtered, "That water's hot!"

"Really?" Kensuke asked, "It doesn't seem that bad to me..."

"Still no aches and pains, Saotome?" Aido asked.

"Huh?" Ranma glanced down at himself then said, "No...I'm still fine. Weird...like I healed back completely when I changed..."

"Useful information," Nabiki decided, "In fact it could even save your life sometime. We'll file it away for later study."

"Well...lucky you Goddammit!," Kensuke remarked, "I wish I had a gift for healing like that, but it's going to take me a while to get all my strength back after that little dip in the ice."

"Hey man, I'm sorry about that," Ranma was instantly contrite, "If I'd been on my guard against that Goodbye Whirl thing..."

"Hey, don't worry about it," Aido said, "You're the first guy we've ever known who didn't let go when you could saved yourself. You really were worried about Nabiki there taking a hit?"

"Huh?" Ranma blinked, "Ah...well..."

"You needn't have worried about her," Kensuke reassured him, "If you had let go then Azusa would have sent you flying while Senzenen would have moved to catch her. Net result, you go splat while he takes his kiss. He's done it to everyone who's gone up against him, including me and Aido."

"He did that to you?" Nabiki asked in surprise.

"Yeah," Kensuke glanced down at the foaming water, "Only I wasn't strong enough to hold on to Aido, so I got smacked into the wall while Senzenen kissed her..."

"For the last time, it wasn't your fault, Kensuke-kun!" Aido insisted, "You couldn't stand up to those kinds of forces any more than me. In fact, if Azusa had lost it with us then we'd have both gone flying into the wall. Lucky me that pervert was fast enough to catch me, even if I had to wash my mouth out with garlic salt for a week to get the taste to go away..."

There was a very loud crashing noise that rang out over their heads, and then another cheer rang out from the sporting arena.

"Kuso!" Kensuke glanced up, "Sounds like the Golden Pair's claimed another victim..."

"Score one more for the Goodbye Whirl," Aido signed in resignation.

"Akane...!" Nabiki started to gasp.

"You don't think...?" Ranma started to ask.

"Dry up and blow away, Saotome!" an angry voice cried out as Akane stormed angrily into the room, "The nerve of that guy! Who the heck does he think he is trying to pull a stunt like that...?"

"Who?" Nabiki asked, "Ryoga?"

"Ryoga?" Akane halted in mid-clomp as she had not removed her skates when entering the lockers, "Hell no...that was Senzenen who just went into orbit! And I hope he bounces a couple of times when he lands..."

"Hey, slow down a little," Aido urged, "What happened?"

"You mean you two survived the Goodbye Whirl?" Senzenen blinked.

"Oh yeah, that thing," Akane snorted, "Thank Ryoga-kun for that, he stopped that pervert from hurling us both into a wall, like with you guys."

"He did?" Ranma replied.

"Like...how?" Nabiki wondered.

"Well," Akane frowned a bit, "It was really odd...I mean...the Golden Pair had us in that Merry-Go-Round thing, and I was doing everything I could to hold on for dear life to Ryoga when he told me to grip him by one arm so he could free his other hand, and then...ah...well...he reached up and pulled off one of his bandanas..."

"Say what?" Ranma blinked.

"What do you mean...one of his bandanas?" Nabiki marveled.

"Just like I said," Akane replied, "He must have more than one of them, because he threw a dozen at the ground around Senzenen, but when we landed at the far end of the rink he still had one around his forehead. Too bad for Senzenen, he got another icy bath while that Azusa twit went off chasing after her precious 'Charlotte.'"

"Whoah," Ranma said, "You mean Mikado got himself wet again?"

"Yeah, but the weird part is how he dried himself off," Akane replied, "When he started spinning like a top and threw off water everywhere he got me and Ryoga wet and...ah...well...then the pervert tried to make another grab for me, so I knocked him through the roof like I do every day with Kuno."

"You actually managed to nail Senzenen?" Aido marveled.

"Hey, she may be a macho chick, and clumsy, but she's got a pretty mean right cross," Ranma attested with absolute conviction.

"And this is the girl that half your school wants to date?" Kensuke asked with a very bland expression.

"Speaking of your bandana-wielding boyfriend," Nabiki said, "Where is Hibiki anyway? I thought he'd come storming in here to pick another fight with Ranma-  
kun..."

"He's not my boyfriend, Nabiki...and, er...well..." Akane winced, "It's kind of a long story...let's just say that he took off and leave it at that..."

"Huh, probably got lost again, the Baka," Ranma sniffed, "Man, I can't figure that guy out...like, why's he always mad at me? What did I ever do to him besides wait three days freezing my ass off in that lot behind his house?"

"Who knows, Saotome," Nabiki sighed, "There's just no figuring some people out."

"Ah...heh...yeah, I guess," Akane winced slightly, not wanting to elaborate on where she had last seen Ryoga taking off with the frilly-headed Azusa hot on his curly tail and no sense at all in which direction he was actually headed...

Ryoga kept absolutely still as he huddled like a tiny black ball under the bushes just outside of the sporting arena. That Azusa weirdo was still chasing after him, and if he so much as breathed funny he was certain that she would be on him again, and in his current shape he knew he could hardly put up much of a fight against her, let alone escape her clutches.

It was so very unfair! After he'd agreed to help Akane out in that skating match (mostly so he would have an excuse to pound on that Senzenen guy for daring to do what he had to Nabiki, and also get hoped-for clear shot at Ranma), but once again his cursed body had betrayed him during a crisis. Despite the help he had gotten from Akane he still wound up running for his life with that kawaii kleptomaniac trying desperately to turn him into a pet forever.

Life was never kind to Hibiki Ryoga, but at the very least he had hoped to find some justice for all that he had suffered over the past two years of searching for Saotome Ranma. Imagine at last finding the very devil himself upon whom you attributed all of your worldly problems, and to be unable to claim his revenge because of the recurrent presence of cold water was infuriating and depressing. Being turned into a small and helpless animal made his journeys fraught with unimaginable perils from even the most commonplace encounters, and all because of an accident that was not his fault, just a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time when a girl chasing a panda ran into him in the middle of rural China...

Wait a second...a panda? Like the one sitting on the stone bench next to that fountain?

(Must be a coincidence), he thought as he huddled in his hiding place, looking out from between the bushes at the panda sitting on the bench calmly eating rice cakes from a tray, just as casual about the matter as if it were an everyday occurrence. Something about this caused Ryoga the Piglet to frown in concentration, wondering just why someone would be dressed up in a panda suit this time of year in the middle of a schoolyard as though there was nothing unusual about this.

No one would ever accuse Ryoga of being a rocket scientist, and in truth it was a strain for him to put two and two together, but there was something disturbingly familiar about that panda, and he knew for a fact that pandas were rare enough in the wild that meeting one in a civilized place was almost unheard of. The reason that this was particularly of interest to him was his recent encounter with that stunning redhead, who also seemed somehow familiar, a redhead dressed similarly to the outfit that he had seen Ranma wearing, and he believed he heard Nabiki use the name of Ranko, describing her as a cousin.

A cousin...one who looked familiar, who had red hair and a pigtail and had showed up rather conveniently when Ranma was absent. What was there about this that caused Ryoga to frown in unusual concentration, making use of mental muscles that had never seen much exercise before, and yet which seemed to be bearing fruit as he sensed a connection between this girl and someone he had already met. In fact, it was the panda who seemed to help him make the connection, but where...?

"Charlotte? Charlotte! Where are you? Little Azusa is so worried..."

Ryoga shivered and tried to act even smaller than he was, hoping the fruitcake would go away and not notice where he was or he was certain that getting away from her again would be more than slightly problematic!

"Charlotte...where have you gone? Please come back to little Azusa! She only wants to take you home and show you off to her other friends!"

Oh yeah, like Hibiki Ryoga was going to fall for a line like that! Ryoga felt the shadow of his doom passing over him and dared to look up in time to see Azusa moving past his position. If anything he felt his heart beating louder than ever and he was certain that she could hear it even as he stayed completely motionless and hoped like hell that he was too insignificant for even the kawaii idiot to notice!

"Charlotte...OH!" Azusa said, and all at once Ryoga was certain his heart would stop, but then she continued, "Oscar? It's you, Oscar! Azusa is so happy!"

Oscar? Ryoga opened his eyes again in shock and amazement. To his amazement he saw Azusa move away from him and head directly for the panda.

"Oscar, you'll come home with little Azusa and be her friend, yes?"

"Hmmmuuh?" murmured the panda, clearly as surprised and confused at the girl's behavior as was Ryoga, who almost felt like calling out a warning that it was dangerous for a human girl to approach such a large animal bare handed.

But to his amazement the panda wound up going off with the girl once she mentioned something about feeding and caring for him, so Ryoga heaved a sigh of profound relief and did not even mind the slight sense of deflation at realizing that he had been passed over for another animal, musing faintly of the fickleness of women...

Which brought him back to the subject of the girl named Ranko. There was something about her that puzzled Ryoga greatly, and he knew instinctively that he would have to find and confront her about that. He did not know what part she was to play in his destiny, but as sure as he would gain his vengeance against Ranma he intended to discover where he had met the girl before, and what was her real connection to the family of Tendo, especially to the sisters Akane and Nabiki...

The walk home back to the Tendo house was strangely subdued for both Ranma and Nabiki. Her father and older sister had insisted on leaving early with Akane, so they had only each other for company since Aido and Kensuke had gone home to their own place.

The silence had stretched long between them before at last Nabiki managed to say aloud, "Ranma-kun..."

"Uh...yeah?" Ranma asked cautiously, not wanting to disturb the quiet truce that had fallen between them since leaving the arena.

"What you said back there, threatening Senzenen..." she began.

"Oh...that?" he asked tentatively, "Forget about it."

"But..."

"Nabiki," Ranma said with more care than was usual for him, "You and me are partners, right? And partners stand up for each other, so you know I'd never let a creep like that do anything bad to you, right?"

"Partners," Nabiki said, "Right."

"And you stood up for me back there, so we're even," Ranma continued, "Not that I woulda let you go through with kissing the creep. I wasn't hurt that bad, and I'd have recovered on my own in another couple of minutes."

"I see," Nabiki eyed the man at her side with a coy expression, "So it didn't really matter to you who he was threatening to kiss, you just didn't want to see him do it with a girl for principle's sake?"

"Hey, I don't like creeps like him who think they can smooth-talk their way with a girl," Ranma replied, "You think I enjoyed it when he did it with me?"

"And of course you were good at preventing him from kissing you," Nabiki pointed out with mild amusement.

"Ah...well..." Ranma started to think it over.

"So you'd be just as successful in protecting my virtue," she continued, "Not that the sentiments aren't appreciated."

Ranma glowered then grumbled, "I take it back...I should have let him kiss you."

"What?" Nabiki reacted with a lifting of eyebrows.

"It would have served him right," Ranma replied, "You'd have charged him for it and probably took him for everything he was worth."

Nabiki actually thought it over before she said with casual ease, "You may be right about that...I could have taken him to court and maybe force his family to pay big bucks for assaulting my virtue and taking advantage of my innocence in front of my own iinazuke. I could have won concessions by rounding up the names of all the other girls he's done this to, and made his life a living hell, if only I'd thought about it first. Thanks for pointing this out, Ranma-kun, next time I'll know better."

"Hey!" Ranma reacted, "You mean you really would have kissed him?"

"Why Ranma-kun," Nabiki said with a bland expression, "You sound upset. I thought it didn't matter to you who he kissed, especially if it were me?"

"That ain't the point and you know it!" Ranma fumed, "You know I'd-I'd-aw! Forget about it! You are such a Mercenary..."

"I may be a mercenary, Ranma-kun," Nabiki said with a lifting of her chin, "But just the same...thank you for caring enough about me to stand up for my virtue. No one's ever done that before, regardless of your reasons."

"Huh?" Ranma blinked in surprise, his mental processes derailed as he caught the smile she turned on him as she said this.

"You really are something else, Saotome," Nabiki observed, "So proud and sure of yourself in a fight, but when it comes to anything else you turn into a little lost boy who can't even string two words together to form a coherent sentence. There's a lot of work to do if we're going to polish up your act..."

"What?" he blinked again, now totally confused by her mercurial nature.

"As your manager I have to put your interests above everything else," she informed him, "And if that means having to civilize you from the ground up so that you can sit in decent company without embarrassing yourself or acting like a total barbarian, then so be it. You can consider it my life's project from this point on to make you outshine a mere poser like Senzenen..."

"Uh...what are we talking about again?" Ranma asked, seeing her turn her crooked little smile his way as though reading him like a book, a fact that made him feel both nervous and...very funny inside. It was at moments such as this that he was reminded just how feminine she was, and how unfathomable and vexing, a real mystery beyond his powers to unravel.

"Don't worry your little head about it, Ranma-kun," Nabiki patted him on the shoulder, "Just leave everything to me, you know you can always trust your fate to Tendo Nabiki."

Something about the way she said this made Ranma's self-preservation instincts kick into high gear, and by rights he should have taken off running, but for some strange reason his legs refused to obey this pragmatic impulse. For reasons that totally escaped him he found himself trotting along at her side like a faithful hound at the side of his master, and yet somehow he also felt the urge to protect her, having come face-to-face with the vulnerable side of this confusing girl and her materialistic obsessions.

For good or ill they both were partners, and come what may they would stand together, even if he suspected that he was asking for more trouble than he ever knew existed which-curiously enough-left him feeling oddly...excited...

Continued.

Comments/Criticisms/Crestfallen Expressions: shadowmane

Ryoga explores the mystery of the redheaded pigtailed girl while Akane meets a new and deadly adversary, and Ranma finds himself drawn into the spiraling web of events as the training partner for both Akane and his reluctant iinazuke. But is there someone else stalking him from the shadows? And what will Nabiki herself do when she starts having rivals turn up with semi-valid claims upon her "business-partner," Ranma? Be with us next time for: "Gymnastics of the Heart," or, "The Curse of the Black Rose of Hokkaido!" Be there!

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If you wish to check out my other works, Please check out my Fanfiction webpage at: ~ All related chapters of this series can be found there along with my other works. 


	11. Chapter 11

RanHearts11

The Horse and the Butterfly

By Jim Robert Bader

(Inspired by the works of Rumiko Takahashi)

Chapter Eleven.

A Black Rose by Any Other Name...

Nexus of Worlds-Limbo,  
Time Patrol HQ, Station #317

"Wow, Pop," Ranko whistled appreciatively, "That was you and Mom in the old days? And you won a skating match against Coach Senzenen?"

"What, you think it's such a big deal that your old man dusted that fancy-pants womanizer?" Ranma sniffed, "Though...to tell the truth, it was kinda...interesting seeing it happen with you instead of Akane, 'Biki."

His wife glared at him but decided to ignore that hated nickname...at least for the moment, "Interesting is hardly the word for it, but...yes...gratifying is more what I would have called it. Of course I don't know who those other two were that were helping us out, but it seems that matters ended pretty much as we remember, save that on this timeline I seem to have taken Akane's place as your principle iinazuke..."

"That's it exactly, Boss," Ryonami assured her, "What Gos-kun and me were trying to do is prove one of your favorite pet theories, namely that you'd have made a much better iinazuke for Ranma-kun than Akane..."

"Yes," Gosunkugi reluctantly nodded, "We all know what happened on our own timeline, so here we thought to start things out a bit different by preventing Akane from ever being engaged to Ranma in the first place. That's freed your younger sister to choose a different path than the one we knew, and she seems to have gravitated on her own towards Hibiki..."

"Me?" Ryoga reacted, "Wait...I'm confused here. You mean I don't know about Ranma's curse and he doesn't know about mine, but Akane does? And she's actually adopted me as her pet pig in spite of the fact that she knows what I really am?"

"Yeah, definitely weird, Bro," Ranma concluded, "Everything else seems the same, but it's the parts that look different that get really confusing..."

"Hey, with what all I've seen of other worlds and their different histories, this almost sounds normal," Ranko sniffed, "But the thing I can't figure out, Mom, is what you do when those other fianc es of Pop's show up to cause trouble."

"Y'know, the Kid has a pretty good point there, 'Biki," Ranma mused, "What exactly do you do when the likes of Shampoo, Ukyo or even Kodachi turn up to stake their own claims?"

"That's easy," Nabiki growled, "I sell you to them for a net discount."

"Ah...why don't we watch and see what happens on the monitors?" Ryonami suggested.

"Yes," Gosunkugi nervously agreed, adjusting the controls to his station, "Let's start out with the first one to show up, she's usually the one that's the hardest to predict..."

"That almost makes sense," Ranma said, then added nervously, "Are we talking about who I think we are?"

"Oh, I know who that is!" Ranko brightened, even as the holographic display above the station began to show events that took place sometime after the skating match...

Nerima, Japan-Circa 1992

"Man, I take it all back," a cheerful Ranma-chan was saying to her iinazuke, "Being a girl part of the time is almost worth it if you can get free eats like this..."

"Oh really?" Nabiki replied with an arched eyebrow, "And you don't mind it if it does seem a little demeaning?"

"How do you figure that?" Ranma-chan asked, nodding to the ice-cream cone that she was holding, then the one in the hands of Nabiki, "You didn't exactly refuse that guy when he offered to buy you that for free."

"True enough," Nabiki conceded, "But I'm used to doing this, and I was born a girl. I don't mind taking advantage of a man's generosity, but I thought you would at least find it just a little bit unmanly..."

"Oh sure, if I was a guy right now, which I'm not," Ranma-chan pragmatically countered, licking her ice-cream to insure it did not melt away while they debated the issue, "But if guys are gonna push this stuff on me because they think I'm just a cute little girl, then who am I to refuse?"

Nabiki thought a moment while she took a few licks of her own ice-cream, tacitly conceding the point as she turned to look at her fianc e again and said, "All right, so if men do offer you treats for free, doesn't that mean you feel obligated to reciprocate in some fashion?"

"No, why, do you?" Ranma-chan asked, "C'mon, Nabiki, it ain't like I've seen you turn down a favor or two, so why make a point about it now?"

"Well," Nabiki said slyly, "It's true that I've been known to ply my charms to good effect, but I'm surprised that you aren't more concerned that I'd be obligated to do something nice for them in return..."

"Oh?" Ranma-chan tried not to sound too interested as she turned a look towards her comely companion, "Like...what kind of favors?"

"Oh, you know," Nabiki drawled, "There's lot of things a guy expects from a girl...well, expect may be a bit too strong a word...maybe more like hopefully anticipate, like they want desperately for us to do something to stroke their egos...a smile, a nod, a look, maybe even something else a bit more...graphic."

"Graphic?" Ranma-chan blandly repeated.

Nabiki chuckled softly, "You're still too new to being a girl to really understand what comes along with the packaging, Ranma-kun. There are a lot of issues that you seem blithely unaware of, like...the whole reason why there are men and women in the first place."

Ranma-chan was silent for a moment while she thought that over, then at last she said, "You mean...sex stuff?"

"Exactly," Nabiki decided to test her own curiosity about this subject, "And just how much do you know about the differences between the sexes?"

"Ah...well...the change in equipment's pretty obvious," Ranma-chan glanced down, "My guy parts and my girl parts change in size, like these two things on my chest, and the other thing between my legs..."

"So I've noticed," Nabiki said blandly, "So...do you know what they're for and how to use them?"

"Huh?" now Ranma-chan's confusion was obvious, "Use them? How?"

"Oh my," Nabiki rolled her eyes, "Let me take a wild stab here and guess that your Daddy didn't think it was 'Manly' to explain to you about the birds and the bees, right?"

"Ah...well..." Ranma-chan said more uncomfortably as she finished off her ice-  
cream cone, then tossed the paper wrapping into a nearby trash container, "...Can't really say it ever came up in training, not that I'd expect he'd know that much himself..."

"He had to know at least a little something on the subject in order to have you, Ranma-kun," Nabiki pointed out.

"Ah...I don't follow you..." Ranma-chan said blankly.

"I'm talking about how BABIES are made, you dolt!" Nabiki snapped, exasperated about his obliviousness on the subject, "Like...when a man and a woman get together? You know...copulation?"

"Copu-what?" Ranma-chan blinked.

"When a man sticks his thing into a woman and gets her pregnant," Nabiki explained carefully, as if explaining nuclear physics to a small infant, "You do know what a pregnant woman is, right?"

"Oh yeah, I've seen...oh..." Ranma-chan said softly, then her eyes got very wide, "SAY WHAT?"

"Calm down, Genius," Nabiki growled softly, "You want to make a scene? Honestly, you never even heard about this until now? How in the heck does Daddy expect you to ever make me a good husband, I'll never figure that out..."

"Ah...wait...Nabiki?" Ranma-chan pleaded, "How the heck did we get on this subject? I don't know nothing about this stuff because I ain't been to school too much in the past two years, and if it ain't got nothing to do with training..."

"Yes, and you were raised by a wild panda," Nabiki sniffed as she finished off her own ice-cream cone, then neatly folded the paper parts up into a wad for easy carrying, not wanting to look like a litter bug in front of her iinazuke, "Which ought to go a long way to explaining about how you could be so untutored and savage in other things, but when it comes to something like this..."

"Uh..." Ranma looked hastily to one side and said, "'Biki? Mind if we finish this later? I hear something..."

"What?" Nabiki asked, only to find the redhead had vaulted onto the nearby wall past which they had been walking, and poised on the top to see something on the other side that was not visible to Nabiki, "Hey!"

"Something going on over there," Ranma-chan said, "There's a girl facing three other girls, and they're wearing leotards, except the one girl's got a school uniform that don't look familiar. I think those three girls are in my class..."

"What?" Nabiki said sharply, "Describe the one girl they're facing!"

"Dark haired, and her uniform's white and dark gray...HEY! What the heck is she doing with that ribbon?"

"Ribbon?" Nabiki almost sounded a note of panic, "Oh no...I know that girl! Ranma-!"

"Just wait right here, I gotta put a stop to this," Ranma-chan said as she vanished over the wall, going beyond Nabiki's line of vision.

"RANMA-KUN!" she tried to warn him in vexation, "Why don't you ever listen to me? Ooohhh...I'm going to make her so sorry for this..."

It belatedly occurred to Nabiki that the fence that they had been passing by came to an end just a little bit ahead of where she was standing, so she rushed to the end of the line so that she could peer around it and see for herself what was happening. Unfortunately, by the time she got there, all she found was Ranma-chan standing over three girls who looked as though they had been badly beaten with a whip. By the time she approached them the matter was long decided, but, as her worst suspicions were soon to confirm, it would prove to be only the beginning of yet another strange chapter in the life that she was beginning to share with the sex-changing boy named Saotome Ranma...

"Huh?" Akane blinked as she stared at the three girls huddled on the floor of her room, "You want me to do what?"

"Please Akane," said the lead of the trio of student gymnasts, "We know it's a lot to ask of you, but there's no one else we can turn to."

"Yeah," a second girl said, "Nabiki can confirm it for us that Kodachi's taken out everybody else in our school who can compete in Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics and left them in the same shape that we are."

"We can't go out there and compete with cuts and bruises all over our bodies, not to mention our faces," the third gymnast affirmed, "It will take us weeks to fully recover, and by that time Furinkan will lose the match by default because we have no one to represent us."

"Geez," Ranma-chan remarked, "That Kodachi sure is a real nutcase, and what kind of martial artist goes around hurting people so they can't compete?"

"The kind who doesn't want to take the chance that she might lose, Ranko," Nabiki said, deliberately using Ranma's alter-ego, "Kodachi's got an ego only slightly larger than that of her brother..."

"Brother?" Akane asked.

"She's got a brother?" Ranma-chan asked, "Poor guy..."

"You won't think that when you hear his name," Nabiki revealed, "Or should I rather say that you already know Kuno Kodachi's brother..."

"KUNO-?" Akane blurted.

"Kodachi?" Ranma-chan blinked.

"You've never heard of her before?" one of the three girls asked.

"She goes to Saint Hebereke's, a private school for rich snobs like her," the second girl explained.

"Yeah, and you're right about her being a nut-job too," the third student complained, "She's got the most chilling laugh you've ever heard, and she throws about those black rose blossoms that she uses for her namesake..."

"Namesake?" Akane repeated.

"Black Rose Kodachi," Nabiki answered, "It's what she calls herself, and you'd agree the name fits if you knew her as well as I do."

"Yeah?" Ranma-chan asked with a raised eyebrow, "And how exactly did you come to know somebody like that, Nabiki?"

"Through hanging around with her brother, of course," Nabiki replied, "Even he thinks she's over the top, which ought to tell you something. He calls her his 'Twisted Sister,' and she uses toxins as well as booby-trapped weapons to take out her competition. I've seen her at work and she's very good, a formidable fighter, and definitely not to be trusted."

"Hah, I could take her," Ranma-chan sniffed, "That ribbon thing of hers wasn't that tough..."

"Unfortunately, you're not a student at Furinkan, Ranko-san," one of the trio of injured gymnasts replied, "But Akane is, and that's why we need you."

"Huh?" Ranma-chan said, "But I..."

"I'd be honored to stand up and defend the honor of Furinkan," Akane resolved, balling her fists and sitting up on her bed, "I can't stand cheaters and those who dishonor the name of martial arts! Count me in as your champion, guys, and I'll show that Kodachi that she shouldn't mess with our school..."

"Geez, why don't you open your big mouth and volunteer already," Ranma-chan griped.

"You shut up!" Akane snapped at her.

"Akane-chan," Nabiki said more reasonably, "Are you sure you know what you're getting yourself into?"

"Of course I do," Akane replied.

"Really?" Ranma-chan asked skeptically, "And just how good are you at normal gymnastics?"

"I...huh?" Akane blinked.

"You heard me," Ranma-chan replied, "You ain't very coordinated and you wobble on your feet a lot, so how are you supposed to go out there and compete against somebody who's been training in this stuff probably all of their life?"

"I..." Akane glanced down with a crestfallen expression.

Unnoticed in all this, the small black pig sitting on the bed beside Akane looked from the redheaded girl to the dark haired girl then narrowed his eyes as if in deep thought, trying to come to a decision.

"We know you can do it, Akane," the first gymnast said, "We have confidence in you!"

"And if you want to know what it takes to win at Martial Arts Rhythmic gymnastics," the second said, "Then we're the ones to teach you!"

"Yeah, we can't spar with you too much because of our injuries," the third said, "But we ought to be able to give you a few pointers."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Akane smiled, "Let's go to the dojo and I'll start my training! I'll beat that Kodachi even if it kills me!"

"Mind if I quote you on that?" Ranma-chan remarked before lowering her tone and adding, "I got a bad feeling about this..."

"You and me both, Ranma-kun," Nabiki softly averred, though she made a point of keeping her tone low so that her words did not reach Akane...

Some hours later their next-to-worst fears were confirmed as they watched Akane attempt to perform Rhythmic gymnastics...with predictable results as she only managed to get herself thoroughly entangled in her own rhythm, much to the dismay of her three fellow gymnastics students.

"Oh Akane...you really don't have to overdo it like that," said one of the trio of well-meaning instructors.

"This isn't about strength and raw power," the second impromptu-coach informed her, "It's about finesse and timing."

"You have to learn to feel your way with the ribbon," the third girl counseled, "You can't strike your opponent with your hands and feet, you have to use the gymnastics tools provided to you in order to overcome her and hopefully force her out of the arena."

"Now you tell me," Akane replied from her inverted position, wrapped up in her own ribbon with her left foot leaning up against the wall and the practice ball, her arms held akimbo by a baton with a couple of bowling pins wrapped up into the package.

"Oh man," Ranma-kun winced (having taken the time to change genders while Akane was changing costumes), "You suck even worse than I thought you would..."

"Oh, gee, thanks for the encouragement," Akane shot back, "This isn't as easy as it looks you know, so why don't you try being helpful for a change, you baka?"

"I am being helpful," Ranma assured her, "I'm telling you to quit while you're ahead before you hurt yourself for real, Akane."

"Ranma-kun," Nabiki said archly, closing her mouth and giving him a stern look, "Mind if we step outside for a moment...Now?"

"But..." Ranma started to say when he saw the LOOK his iinazuke was giving him and promptly forgot his objections, "Ah...right..."

Akane watched the two of them leave and silently fumed, wondering not for the first or last time how it was that her older sister was able to rein in a smart-  
mouth like her boyfriend with nothing more than a glance and a suggestion. At least Nabiki got that pest out of her way for a brief while, leaving Akane to salvage what dignity she could with the help of her three helpful tutors, silently grumbling to herself that it would be nice to hear a complimentary word out of the baka, even if she'd rather die than admit that she put any value to his opinions...

...And, unseen by anyone else at the moment, a small black pig scowled in silent resolve, having arrived at a personal decision. Akane was in need of a great deal of support and assistance, and since she had shown kindness towards him, and was a friend after a fashion, it only made sense that he do what he could to help her out, ESPECIALLY in light of the rather nasty way Ranma had been cutting her down with his usual acerbic commentary. As much as Ryoga would have liked to pound Ranma's skull in for being the typically rude and obnoxious jerk that he was, he owed a greater favor to Akane...and besides, as he had come to discover, directly attacking Ranma in the open was not the best way of gaining attention from the one whom he actually adored. Ryoga felt conflicted in his emotions, but he knew the best way of showing his respect to the Tendo family, and so he made a fateful trip out the side entrance to the dojo, intending to seek out a short dip in the nearest source of hot water...

Outside on the lee of the dojo Ranma was casting a nervous look at his fianc e and saying a tentative, "What?" in the hopes that she was not going to fume at him without any explanation.

"Ranma-kun," Nabiki began rather acidly, "Do you think you might tone it down a little instead of shooting your mouth off without thinking for once? I know that Akane isn't exactly the most graceful thing on two legs, but rubbing it in like that is tackless even by your standards.'

"Hey, I was only telling it like I saw it," Ranma protested, "Don't tell me you disagreed with me, 'cause I know different."

"It isn't a matter of honesty that's at issue here, Saotome," Nabiki glared, "It's the way you always ride on Akane for every little fault, either real or imagined. If only you'd take the time to get to understand her better, help her out, point out where she needs to improve in her training, give her the benefit of some of that martial arts expertise you're always flaunting in other peoples' faces..."

"Hey, I'm not trying to cut her down or nothing," Ranma insisted, "But do you honestly think Akane would listen to a thing I say? You know how stubborn and pig-headed she is, how she always tries to bull her way through everything instead of thinking it out. Maybe her problem's that she grew up in this dojo instead of getting a taste of the real world, you ever think of that?"

"And exactly how would that improve her skills as a martial artist?" Nabiki asked.

"Hey, I don't mean it like there's anything bad with your dojo or nothing like that," Ranma assured her, "But there ain't nothing that can substitute for what's out there on the road. And when you've been to some of the places I've been..."

"Such as?" Nabiki asked with arms folded under her chest.

"Um...well..." Ranma scratched the hair at the back of his head and sheepishly replied, "There was that trip through China...and some other stuff that Pop dragged me through, all to teach me how to be a great martial artist. Of course all that ever got me was a list of enemies as long as my arm, that and I got chased all the way back from China to Japan by a cute Amazon girl who wanted to kill me..."

"Huh?" Nabiki blinked, "What was that?"

"What was what?" Ranma blinked.

"You were chased out of China by a what?" Nabiki asked blandly.

"Oh...you mean Shampoo?" Ranma responded.

"Shampoo?" Nabiki blinked.

"Yeah," Ranma replied, "She's that cute Amazon I mentioned, the one who wanted to kill me."

"She wanted to kill you?" Nabiki repeated blandly, "Why?"

"Ah..." Ranma winced, "It's...kind of a long story..."

"No doubt," Nabiki deadpanned.

"Um...well..." Ranma glanced away, "Anyway...you want I should go easy on Akane...but how's she ever gonna improve if nobody tells her she needs improving? I tell her like I do 'cause that's how Pop always coaches me, and while I don't like the old fool's methods any more than you do, y'can't argue that they ain't effective."

"So insulting you, belittling your manhood and berating you for any display of human weakness is your idea of training?" Nabiki said coldly, "Maybe in third world prisons and dog kennels that might work, but if you really want to motivate yourself, try thinking of something positive, like electroshock therapy, or maybe using cattle prods in place of bokken..."

Ranma shuddered, "Not so loud! Pop might take you serious and think that's a good idea for training!"

Nabiki just eyed Ranma soberly, then in a much quieter voice asked, "Has it really been that hard for you all these years? The wandering, the training? Always alone, never with anyone who actually cares about you for your own sake, as a person?"

"Ah..." Ranma said uncomfortably, "Well...it ain't been no bed of roses...if that's what you mean, 'Biki..."

She bridled slightly at the use of that nickname, but rather than get angry, as he might have suspected, she instead said, "You don't have to be like that any more...Ran-kun. You're not on the road anymore, you've got a place to stay now, and you could have friends...if you tried. Kensuke and Aido, for example..."

"Or you?" Ranma countered, though even as he said the words he was uncertain of his own intentions.

Nabiki's reaction surprised him, for this time it was her who glanced away, her expression unreadable, though the stoical mask that she often wore began to slip a little, especially in her eyes, which looked to the koi pond and were peculiarly haunted.

"I don't have friends, Ranma-kun...not really," she answered in an oddly hollow voice, "I've got associates who work with me at school, but...I've never let anyone get that close to me. I don't trust people, they always let you down..."

"Huh?" it was Ranma's turn to blink, "What's that supposed to mean? Who let you down, Nabiki? Did...somebody do something to make you unhappy?"

Nabiki snapped out of whatever daze she was in, blinking her eyes as if she had not realized that she was speaking aloud, and at once the mask slipped back into place, her eyes becoming guarded and wary.

"That's...not really important, Ranma-kun," she said aloud, her voice even and measured, "But let's just say that trust doesn't come any easier for me than it does for you, and that's why I don't have any real friends. It's better that way than...putting your trust in other people."

Ranma felt a chill go through him as he heard her speak those words, but he did not know what to say to that, or even what it was about Nabiki's change of attitude that most upset him. Instead he looked away and-as was typical for his nature-he said the first thing that came into his mind, "About that stuff you were saying earlier...um...about me not knowing stuff that most folks take for granted..."

He did not see the mask slip a little as surprise was expressed in his fianc e's features, "You mean...about sex?"

"Ah..." Ranma winced and grew even more uncomfortable, "Well...uh...what was it you thought I was missing? I mean...if it's about...having babies..." he fidgeted as though his clothes no longer fit him.

Nabiki just stared at the younger boy for the longest time, then tentatively asked, "You really don't understand how it happens, do you, Ranma-kun? How a man and a woman make a baby?'

"Ah..." now Ranma looked as though he wanted to start running, and only by a supreme force of will did he manage to stay where he was as he formulated an answer, "That and...what a guy does to a girl...I mean...is that really how it happens?"

To her own surprise Nabiki found herself smiling at that, "You want to know how it's done, Ranma-kun? If so, then we could work out a graphic illustration..."

"Huh?" Ranma turned and looked at her in confusion and surprise.

"You know," she gave him a sultry leer, "We could go back to my room and take off our clothes and then I could show you how your parts could fit into my parts, and then I can bring out slides and show you how your seed could be used to get me pregnant."

"W-What are you talking about?" Ranma took a step away and made a warding sign without thinking, "I didn't mean to do anything weird or..."

"What's the matter, Ranma-kun?" Nabiki asked knowingly, "Are you afraid of seeing me naked? I thought you were used to seeing yourself in a mirror, so why should it be different if you look at me...or don't you find me attractive?"

"H-H-Huh?" Ranma stared like a deer frozen in the headlights.

"If you're going to be my husband some day," Nabiki continued, "Then you're going to have to get used to the idea of seeing me without my clothes on...unless you expect us to do it with our clothes on?"

"Hah?" Ranma faintly responded.

"I know that Daddy would be pleased if you took me boldly in your arms and made me your love slave," Nabiki continued, adding a throaty purr as she moved closer to her fianc e, "But then again, I suppose I'm really not that attractive to you, being a cold-hearted mercenary. I guess you don't really want to have me on my knees like a puppy in heat. I must be terribly ordinary and harmless to a big, strong martial artist like you, hmm?"

With the tip of an index finger she stroked the side of his jawline all the way down to his chin, all the while giving him a knowing look that read him like a book. Ranma was petrified, whether by fear or indecision, but the sense Nabiki had was that he would not move a centimeter unless she did something to spook him, like a wild animal that you had to approach with caution, though Nabiki found herself enjoying the way that she seemed to wield great power over a boy who was in so many ways both dangerous and intriguing. A Wild Stallion he was, but one who could be tamed with the right sort of handling, and powerless in the web that she spun over his emotions. Men were such fools around women, and Ranma was no exception in this regard, even though he did not understand his own reactions towards her or the not-too-subtle messages that she was deliberately feeding to his unprotected subconscious.

For Ranma this was a moment in which his brain and higher functions all but shut down from sensory overload. Before him was a girl who was slender and whip-like yet physically underdeveloped when compared to a real martial artist, obviously no physical threat to him at all, and the hardest that she could strike him would hardly even be felt and might actually do more harm to her hand than to any part of his body. So why was it that she sent waves of fear coursing throughout the length of his body? Why did her very nearness make him shiver inside and give him the urge to run rather than hold his ground and gawk like an idiot? And why did the touch of her finger burn him inside and set his pulse to racing? Staring into her luminous brown eyes was like gazing into the faceted depths of twin Tiger's Eye stones with the sense that he could see his own face reflected in their smoothness. All at once he felt a strong desire to be even closer to Nabiki, to reach out to hold her in his arms and felt the warmth of her body, the softness of her skin, the perfume of her scent and the gentle rhythm of her heartbeat...

For the longest time they remained like that, but then they both heard Akane said, "Ryoga? Where did you come from?"

Ranma and Nabiki both blinked at that, and then as one they said, "Ryoga?"

They both turned and looked back into the dojo and-sure enough-there was the notorious Lost Boy himself, large as life and scowling at Ranma. Much to everyone's surprise, though, he then proceeded to ignore his hated enemy and instead turned the focus of his attention in Akane's direction.

"Akane," he said respectfully, "Please allow me to help train you for your match against Kuno's sister. I know a little something about Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics, and I'd be honored to share what I know if it helps you to become a match for someone so dishonorable that she picks on those who don't deserve it."

There was an instant chorus of sighs from Akane's three helpful classmates, all of whom were sizing Ryoga up in the manner of a prospective conquest. Akane, however, was oblivious to these stares and only smiled shyly at Ryoga, then said pleasantly, "I'd be honored if you could help me out, Ryoga-kun. At least it's nice to know that there's one boy in this world who doesn't act like a total macho jerk around women."

"Hey," Ranma frowned, scowling at Ryoga sourly and asking the obvious question, "Just how the heck would you know anything about rhythmic gymnastics?"

Ryoga turned a deadly glare back in Ranma's direction but managed to say in a level tone of voice, "It just so happens, Ranma, that some of us like to broaden our horizons by taking in a little culture when we travel. When I followed you through China I chanced to stay for a week with a Chinese dance troop, and they knew things most gymnasts never learn about acrobatics, including how to use the simple tools of their trade like a weapon."

"In other words you got lost and probably got too shy to ask for directions," Ranma snorted, "So what's the deal here? Why do you want to help the Tomboy?"

"Ranma-kun," Nabiki arched her tone in that special way of hers that informed him when he was overstepping safe boundaries, "I think it's very noble of Ryoga to offer to help my sister...and Kami knows she could use the help if she's going to face Kodachi by the end of the week."

"Hey!" Akane frowned, "Who's side are you on, Nabiki?"

To the surprise of many current observers, Ryoga looked down and his face began to flush crimson while he refused to look directly at Nabiki, instead opting to say in surprisingly even tones, "I only want to help out...because it is the right thing to do, and a Martial Artist should lend their strength to those who need their assistance. Akane is a strong fighter, but she could be a lot stronger with a bit more training..."

"Yeah," Ranma snorted, "A lot more-HEY!" he yelped as Nabiki grabbed him by his pig-tail and yanked him backward, "Leggo already! I didn't do nothing...!"

"Back outside, Mister," Nabiki growled, "We have another conference to discuss, you and I, on the subject of tact and manners..."

The trio of student gymnasts watched Nabiki and Ranma exit the dojo for the second time in the past ten minutes, then shared a knowing smirk with one another reflecting their private views about how well the middle Tendo sister was managing to rein in her errant boyfriend. They turned back and shared another knowing smile as they sized up Ryoga, who was glaring hatefully in Ranma's wake, and at Akane, who was studying him with unusual interest, which the girls interpreted in the light of their own pet fascination...

Akane moved closer to Ryoga so that they would not be heard by the other three students, then softly murmured, "It's very nice to you to offer to help me, Ryoga. You know why this is important to me, don't you?"

"Yeah," he said, "I overheard while I was the pig. I promise I'll do everything I can to help you out, Akane, and not just because it's the right thing to do, but also because..." he glared again with venom towards where Ranma had been standing and managed to say between clenched teeth, "...He WOULDN'T do it for you, that..."

"Right," Akane touched his arm, "I gotta say, I'm impressed at how you controlled your temper this time. The way he was needling you, I thought you were about to lose it."

"It'll take more than his insufferable preening to get me to forget my obligations as a guest in your house, Akane-san," Ryoga assured her, "I've decided he isn't worth destroying your house just to pay him back for all he's done, I'll bide my time and have my revenge on Ranma when I'm good and ready, but not here and not now."

"Thank you for being so understanding," Akane smiled, "I really meant what I said just now...about you being the exception to the guys I know, who are mostly inconsiderate jerks and perverts."

"You're much too kind, Akane-san," Ryoga replied, "But it's easy to set a better example than that...Ranma," he growled the word as if it were an epithet.

Akane sighed, "I know he's rude, thoughtless and obnoxious, but I'd appreciate it if you hold off on starting anything. Nabiki cares for the baka, Kami knows why, and even if she won't admit it to herself, and it would upset her if anything bad were to happen to him, like at the skating arena."

"I know," Ryoga said aloud, "I remember..." but what he left unsaid was what he recalled seeing while trapped as a pig at the mercy of Azusa, of seeing Ranma willingly take abuse to protect his skating partner, a selfless act that Ryoga had never imagined Ranma capable of displaying, but even more he remembered witnessing the way Nabiki had acted when she believed that Ranma had been badly hurt protecting her. As much as he still personally loathed and despised his hated rival, he could not bear the thought of inflicting such suffering again the one whose favor he secretly coveted. Ranma was not worth that, even if he did not deserve having an iinazuke like Nabiki.

"That baka doesn't deserve her," was what Ryoga said aloud, "Nabiki deserves much better than an idiot like Ranma."

Akane felt conflicted as she waved her hands and sighed, "You expect an argument out of me? But hey, Nabiki's never had a boyfriend before, and I don't want to see her hurt, Ryoga. Promise me you'll try and work something out that falls short of doing anything permanent to Ranma? At least until Nabiki comes to her senses and sees that there are lots of other guys in the world who could treat her a lot better."

"I can't promise that I won't hurt him," Ryoga informed her, "But...I'll try not do to anything that could hurt your sister. I promise."

Akane sighed, "Then I guess that will have to do for now, but since my father wants Ranma to marry one of us, and there's no way that I'd ever want him for my fianc e, the smart thing is to play along and let Nabiki carry that burden. The alternative would be to engage him to Kasumi..." she winced, "And somehow I don't see how that could ever work out."

"Then there's nothing more to say about it," Ryoga sighed, turning back to his demure companion, "So all that remains is to train you for your match. I think the first thing we need to do is work on your balance."

"Huh?" Akane blinked, "My balance? But..."

"You're used to fighting multiple attackers of very limited strength," Ryoga explained, "But Rhythmic Gymnastics requires a whole different level of skill, and if you're not quick and light on your feet your opponent could nail you. Remember, you fight with weapons in this kind of arena, and you can't hit or kick your opponent, so the object is to force them to dodge your attacks and hopefully you can force them out of the arena, which is as good as a knock-out. Of course your opponent will try and do the same to you..."

"Right," Akane said, "I got it. So...what do you suggest?"

"Well," Ryoga scratched the back of his head and said, "I've never actually trained anybody before, but I imagine we could start out with you balancing on a ball for a few minutes, then work out a few basic tumbles..."

Meanwhile Nabiki had managed to drag Ranma all the way to the side of the house, at which point she let him go so that he could turn around and confront her with a sharply worded, "What did you do that for, Nabiki? That...hurt...?" his tone drifted away as he saw the look that Nabiki gave back to defuse his anger.

"Ranma-kun," Nabiki said in an entreating tone that totally surprised him, "Please stop antagonizing Ryoga or you know that he'll lose control and attack you, and then the both of you will wind up wrecking our home and destroying our dojo, and then we'll have no where else to live. Do you want that? Because it's not worth your ego to go putting him down for wanting to help Akane."

"But...Nabiki..." Ranma almost pleaded, "You don't honestly think that blockhead could teach her anything useful?"

"Maybe," Nabiki replied, "But since you won't help her she's got to have someone on her side who stands a fighting chance of helping her against Kodachi. The least you can do is keep out of their way while they train, and hope for the best. The alternative...is Ranko."

"Huh?" Ranma blinked and repeated the name of his alter-ego, "Ranko?"

"She's not a student at Furinkan," Nabiki explained, "Not officially anyway, but if she were to be available as Akane's alternate, she might be accepted by the judges as a back-up fighter who could represent Furinkan against St. Hebereke."

"What?" Ranma blinked, "Are you serious? But-no way!"

"You said it yourself, Ranma-kun," Nabiki chimed, "There are some advantages to your being able to turn into a girl, and as your manager, I feel that it is my duty to point out that you are a superior martial artist to Akane, and is there any doubt that you could master Anything Goes Rhythmic Gymnastic Martial-Arts by the end of the week, hmmm?"

"But...well...ah..." Ranma stammered.

"Think of it this way, Ranma-kun," Nabiki winked, "You fill out a leotard as well as any girl I know, and you can be quite the crowd pleaser when you like, so you could rally the flagging morale of our school and get some positive publicity for the dojo, since Ranko is listed here as a student. That means more opportunities to drum up attention for more challenge matches, and that means more betting pools that could bring in much-needed cash that could greatly benefit our families, so it would be a win-win outcome if you were to go into battle and defeat Kuno Kodachi."

"But-wait!" Ranma protested, "Me, dress up in one of those dorky outfits? No way! I'm a GUY, Nabiki! I won't go out there and embarrass myself pretending to be a cute girl..."

"And why not?" Nabiki asked, "Are you saying it's better if a real girl dresses up like that?"

"Well...yeah," Ranma responded.

"But it's not all right for you because you're not really a girl, right?" Nabiki said slyly, a look that sent alarm bells ringing in the back of Ranma's mind, seeing how she only gave him THAT particular look when she was planning some mischief.

"Uh...well..." Ranma found that he was standing on the balls of his feet as though sensing that he would have to duck fast, but even as the thought crossed his mind that he was missing the real source of his troubles a splash of wetness struck his face and caused an immediate transformation to the alternate "Ranko" body.

"Oh!" Kasumi gasped as she recovered her balance with the tray in her hands, having stumbled over a throw rub while attempting to circle around Ranma, "I'm so sorry about that, Ranma-kun. I don't know what caused me to trip like that when I was meaning to set out some iced tea for your father and mine..."

"Funny," Nabiki smiled, not looking the least bit surprised about her fianc 's sudden transformation, "You look enough like a girl to me that I'd be stumped to find a difference."

"Very funny," Ranma-chan/Ranko glared as she brushed droplets of ice-tea off of her silk shirt.

Nabiki held up a finger and said, "Object lesson, Ranma-kun, or I mean...Ranko," she gained an especially sweet lilt to her voice that caused Ranma to bridle slightly, "You can't predict or control the times when you change, so you had better get used to spending part of your time as a girl, and that means learning to behave like one, at least in public. Akane gets away with her Tomboy act because she can at least dress and act feminine when she has a mind to...but you can't even talk like a girl, and that's bound to raise more than a few eyebrows."

"Huh?" Ranma blinked, "What's wrong with the way I talk?"

"Oh my, Ranma-kun," Kasumi remarked, "You mean you don't notice? Men and women do use different forms of Japanese when they speak, and you...well...sound...ah...boyish..."

"Good call, Oneechan," Nabiki cheerfully smiled, "And my point in a nutshell. You need to learn to talk like a girl so people don't think of you as unfeminine, Ranko-chan," she grinned again, "So as your manager it is my duty to coach you so you can carry off a good imposture."

"You're enjoying this," Ranko accused with a glare.

"Immensely," Nabiki replied, but then she sobered and added, "I'm sure if I had a curse such as yours I would not find it the least bit funny, Ranma-kun, but facts are facts and you're the one with the curse here. I'm only trying to help you out, after all, since the odds are that many of your fights will be as Ranko instead of Ranma."

"Ah...you think so?" Ranko asked with a dubious expression.

"I know so," Nabiki cheerfully replied, then made a motion towards the inside of the house, "Now, in you go, it's straight to the furo for you, Ranka-kun, and out of those wet clothes at once..."

"Hah?" Ranma blinked, "What are you talking about? I don't need a bath..."

"Ranma-kun," Kasumi said, "You need to take your shirt off so that I can clean it off for you or it will get tea stains. Nabiki is right, it is for the better."

"But...HEY!" Ranko gave a start as Nabiki once again dragged her off, this time by the hand instead of her warrior's braid.

"No arguments, Mister," Nabiki cheerfully, "And this is the perfect opportunity for me to illustrate another point that I...OH! Hello, Daddy...are you feeling all right, Daddy?"

Her father looked stunned as he came out of the furo fully dressed in his favorite martial arts gi, his expression implying something very shocking had just upset him, so much so that he only absently said, "Oh...hello, Nabiki...ah...nice day we're having..."

"Daddy?" Nabiki looked puzzled.

"Um...ah...have you seen Ryoga anywhere about?" Soun asked in a highly distracted manner.

"He's in the dojo coaching Akane, Tendo-san," Ranko replied, "Why?"

"Ah...no reason," Soun replied, "I think I should go lie down now...I've definitely started imagining things..."

Nabiki blinked her eyes, and so did Ranko, then the two of them exchanged puzzled looks together before they shrugged as one and by mutual consent dismissed the matter. After all, living in Nerima tended to have that sort of an effect on most people.

At Nabiki's insistence Ranko followed her into the mid-dressing room, then while she sputtered in disbelief and dismay she was summarily undressed by the middle Tendo sister, Nabiki taking no excuses or denials as she laid Ranko bare within a few moments, then proceeded to undress herself and neatly fold her clothing into a pile that she set aside, along with Ranko's clothing.

"Wh-what are you doing?" Ranko asked with eyes as large as saucers, trying not to look at Nabiki but finding her eyes irresistibly drawn to the sight of her naked iinazuke.

"You see?" Nabiki held her arms out and displayed herself for Ranko's visual inspection, "Now I'm as naked as you, Ranma-kun, and I dare you to find any significant differences between our two bodies."

Ranko attempted to cover her face but found herself peering between fingers as she stared round-eyed at the other girl's body, for the first time ever seeing her iinazuke naked. Nabiki was very well formed indeed, as slender as a whip and with a much better figure than Akane with long, supple legs, a waspish waist, tapering feet and with a nicely shaped pair of breasts that hung from her chest in an extremely appealing manner, her nipples looking like the knobby stems on a pair of ripened fruit that were fit for the plucking. Everything else about Nabiki from head to toe was VERY appealing to the eyes and even taking into account the knowing smirk that she was wearing, Nabiki was a very well-formed girl in "Ranko's" unvoiced and quite understated opinion.

"You see?" Nabiki smiled, looking Ranko up and down in a very odd, appreciative manner, "You're just as much of a girl as me, so...curse or no curse, you might as well get used to the idea..." left unspoken in her sentence were the words, "...Just like I'm doing right now..."

"Ah...Na-Nabiki?" Ranko swallowed, "Wha...?"

Rather than explain herself Nabiki opened the door to the furo and ushered Ranma into the actual bathing chamber, at which point she bade Ranko to sit down on a stool so Nabiki could pour cold water over her head, bending down to scrub the redhead down while Ranko sputtered her weak protests, but at last the pigtailed girl resigned herself to submitting to Nabiki's gentle hands upon her body. At least her iinazuke did not attempt anything "weird" or untoward as she cleaned up her fianc e, and then Nabiki surprised Ranko yet again but exchanging places and insisting that the redhead return the exact same favor.

Ranko felt extremely awkward about laying hands upon Nabiki's bare skin, but as it was the custom for Japanese to perform this service for one another she could not exactly recuse herself of the return obligation. Nonetheless Ranko swallowed thickly as she moved her hands up and down Nabiki's backside, finding no resistance or protest as she explored the slender body and discovered her muscle tone and general softness. When curiosity and temptation proved too much she finally relented to move her hands to places where she would normally NOT EVEN DREAM of touching another girl, yet still Nabiki did not utter a word of protest, simply lifted her arms as if to invite Ranko to move her hands around to the front of her body, and only murmuring a slight sound, like a faint groan, when Ranko's hands cupped and fondled her breasts, which also obligated Ranko to press her own breasts up against the shoulderblades of her fianc e.

Nabiki held her breath in both surprise and anticipation, hoping-yet-daring-not-  
to-hope that Ranko might be inclined to do just this. In truth she felt very...awkward about allowing another girl to fondle her breasts, but-much to her surprise-the sensation was far from unpleasant. Ranko's callused hands were surprisingly gentle as they cupped and weighed Nabiki's bosom then gave her a light "squeeze" as if to assure herself of their consistency and firmness.

Ranko felt that lump in her throat again, the same one that he had worn when in male form and hearing Nabiki propose that they "examine" one another, and yet here they were doing just that, and it made the pig-tailed redhead feel very...strange about the whole bizarre encounter. That Nabiki was encouraging her to actually do this made the whole thing seem even more inexplicable and strange, and yet...being this close to another girl, feeling the warmth of the middle Tendo sister in her arms, and catching the distinctive body-scent that was so different from what a boy would smell like...all made Ranko feel extremely funny about the whole matter.

Almost too soon she heard Nabiki say, "That's enough for now, Ranko-chan. Now let's enter the furo together and we can explore the...significant differences between our two genders."

"Ah-Nabiki!" Ranko let her go as though only just then becoming aware of what she had been doing, "No offense, but...you think that's really such a good idea?"

"Silly," Nabiki rose to her feet and gave him a peculiar smile, taking one of Ranko's hands in a gentle-but-firm manner that in no way reassured the other girl, "This is what the whole experiment is about. Are you saying it's all right to see me naked in my natural state...but it's not all right for you to show me a male Ranma naked?"

"B-B-But-!" Ranko sputtered.

"What's the matter, Ranko-chan?" Nabiki grinned, "Cold feet? Or are you just chicken?"

"Chicken?" Ranko blanched, "I ain't afraid of nothing!"

"Then you won't mind showing what you have, Ranma-kun," Nabiki grinned as she drew her fianc e along to the edge of the furo, "You've seen what I've got, it's only fair that you do likewise."

"But-it's not the same thing!" Ranko protested, "It's ain't proper-!"

"It's perfectly proper for us to see each other naked, Ranko-chan," Nabiki assured him, "After all, you are my iinazuke."

"But-!" Ranko wilted.

"I knew it," Nabiki grinned, "You are afraid of showing me your real self. I guess it's true what your father has been saying about you all along...you really are a woman where it counts, Ranko."

"W-Wh-What?" Ranko blurted out, her rounded eyes becoming cross with a different kind of emotion, "You take that back!"

"Not unless you prove me wrong," Nabiki lifted her chin and smiled confidently, folding her arms in such a way that they accentuated the lift of her bosom, her breasts forming an eye-catching cleft that drew even the female Ranko's attention, "Step into the furo now or admit that you are a coward."

"A-A-All right," Ranko hissed between her teeth, "You asked for it...but only 'cause you dared me. Just remember, I didn't do this 'cause I'm a pervert or nothing..."

But still she hesitated, looking down at the water as though afraid it would burn her like acid, for once totally unattracted to the idea of reverting back to her true gender.

Nabiki's smile just deepened, though in truth she had intended her challenge half as a bluff to see if he would take her up on the offer. A normal boy might have jumped at the chance of spending time with a naked girl in a furo, but Ranma's obviously stunted growth shot to heck her original theory that he was a closet Hentai just looking to take advantage of her when she dropped her guard around him. Time spent in his company had convinced Nabiki that he really was as shy and awkward around girls as he appeared to be on the surface, and that the surface was more than skin deep when it came to her iinazuke. Ranma was pretty much a "what you see is what you got" kind of guy...

...And yet what she had learned in that time about Ranma had shown that there was a LOT more to the guy than a simple inventory of surface qualities would make evident. Aside from his crude, rough-hewn exterior and general lack of civilized manners he was actually quite a prize, both chivalrous and caring about her needs and not the least bit hesitant to sacrifice his own interests for the sake of her welfare. Though his ego still remained a major obstacle he was no where near as selfish and self-centered as Akane made him out to be, and behind that seeming invincible Ego of his was a timid, shy and reclusive young man, a boy badly abused and mistreated by an insensitive father, and shaped to be a weapon for no other purpose but to assure himself a comfortable living.

The "dare" was, in effect, a kind of bluff to see whether Ranma could be provoked into a reaction, and she was waiting to discover if he could be provoked into a sexual reaction. She was not so concerned about what Ranma would do as a girl, but if he did revert to male (in more than one sense of the term) then she would see for certain whether or not he would behalf like a "Man among Men," thus confirming (or disproving) another pet theory.

(Or course what she would do if that did prove to be the case was another issue entirely, one that Nabiki was-admittedly-not at all prepared to handle...)

"Well?" she said aloud when several more moments passed during which nothing significant happened.

"Gimme a minute, I'll do it already!" Ranko insisted, deliberately NOT looking at Nabiki, who was much too distracting and unnerving for the redhead's peace of mind.

"I knew it," Nabiki smiled, but not in a condescending way, "It's all right, Ranma-kun, you don't have to step into the furo to impress me. Just getting this far is proof enough that you were willing to play along with my little dare. The point that I was making, though, is that you don't have to be afraid of your feminine side, and appearing in a leotard in front of hundreds of strangers can't be any more unnerving for you than being naked in front of me, now can it?"

Ranko visibly sighed in relief, "I guess not, Nabiki. I really don't feel good about this, though...I mean, not that I got anything against seeing you...um...like...this," she swallowed, "I mean...maybe some day, but..."

She started to turn around to express herself better, but in doing so her foot encountered something rather unexpected, the bar of soap that Soun Tendo had absently dropped upon seeing a black pig turn into an angry boy before his eyes, and as Ranko suddenly lost her traction she naturally reached out to grab the first thing handy that she could use to steady herself...which, naturally enough, turned out to be Nabiki.

SPLASH!

Nabiki was taken completely by surprise as Ranko frantically reached out to grab her iinazuke, and before she knew it she found herself being pulled into the furo with Ranko breaking her fall with her body. For a moment they both went under and sputtered as neither one had thought to take a deep breath for the occasion, but then Nabiki pushed up and broke the surface of the water once again, sputtering like a wet hen and losing her grip over her normal state of composure, angrily waiting for Ranko to surface so that she could give her a good piece of her mind...

And found herself only inches away from the face of a now-male Ranma, who was staring at her with rounded eyes, sputtering and coughing a moment later as he spat out a mouthful of very warm water.

"Gah-!" Ranma lurched up out of the furo and waved his hands disarmingly, "Nabiki-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to do that! Honest!"

"Huh?" Nabiki blinked, her eyes naturally traveling down the length of his powerful MALE body, to become immediately riveted upon the thing that he was all but waving in her face, forgetting in that moment all about whatever it was that had made her angry in the first place.

"Yeah, I mean...I wouldn't dream of...I'd never...you know I'd... uh...Nabiki?" it slowly started to dawn upon Ranma that she was not reacting in the manner which he would have expected.

"Uh...yeah, Ranma-kun?" Nabiki asked, not raising her eyes as she continued to stare at the thing between his legs, which was very much engorged, having sprung to life at the moment of his transformation.

"Umm..." Ranma found himself feeling both confused and awkward as he asked, "You're...ah...not mad at me...are you?"

"Mad?" Nabiki just stared at the object waving before her as if only half-  
hearing the question.

"Ah...about getting you wet and...what are you looking at me like that for?" he said with an increasingly nervous expression.

Now Nabiki did raise her eyes to look up at him, and what he saw in her expression frightened him more than if she had been livid with outrage. Her eyes were dilated and her cheeks were flush with emotion...and was that drool running down her chin? No...he must be imagining things...no way could she be looking so...hungry...if she was contemplating something vindictive against him...right?

Several pregnant seconds ticked away in that moment, a moment that was rich with possibilities, both positive and negative, with many likely outcomes. Ranma had no idea of what could potentially have happened in that moment, but he had a sense that it might be a very good idea if he got out of the furo and stopped tempting fate to give him something to REALLY remember on this very strange occasion.

"Ah...well...maybe I'd better leave and let you-AWK!" he cried, discovering too late the meaning of the old saying, "He who hesitates is lost..."

"Where are you going...Ranma-kun?" Nabiki asked, her hand firmly wrapped around that VERY private and sensitive part of his anatomy, "You are happy to see me like this...aren't you?"

"N-N-Nabiki?" Ranma squeaked, his tone an octave higher than usual and more closely resembling his voice when he was "Ranko."

"You're not really in a hurry to leave...are you?" she asked in a very strange tone of her own, one that gave Ranma the chills, but not in an entirely bad way either, "There's nothing wrong with us being like this, you know...after all, we are iinazuke..."

Ranma tried to swallow but the lump in his throat made the action impossible. He could not move while Nabiki held him literally by the "boner" that he was presently sporting, nor could he look away as he waited anxiously to see what she would do next now that she had him at her mercy. There was not a single technique that he could think to use to extract him from this perilous situation, but at the same time he found his pulse racing and his senses keying to heightened levels of awareness, just as he became when going into battle, though battle was the farthest thing from his awareness at the moment.

"Oh my...Nabiki? Ranma-kun?" a familiar voice asked, "Are you sure that this is...proper?"

Nabiki let Ranma go so fast that he nearly fell over once again, only spared that awkwardness by the wall at his back, which allowed him to slide into the water without totally losing all dignity, and just in time to catch sight of a concerned Kasumi staring at the both of them while clutching in her arms their dirty laundry, which she had intended on washing.

"Oneechan?" Nabiki all but squeaked, turning a guilty look in her older sister's direction.

"Nabiki," Kasumi said, "Are you taking advantage of poor Ranma-kun? You really should not be doing that before you're married..."

"Ah...hah?" Ranma absently asked, not daring to blink as he kept staring round-  
eyed at Nabiki.

"And Ranma-kun," Kasumi chided, "It's quite understandable if you can't wait that long, but I really think it would be better if you and Nabiki go a bit slower than this. Rushing into things can't be very good for a marriage, and I thought you both were going to wait until after you graduated from High School."

"Ah..." Nabiki sank down to her neck in the furo, looking quite ashamed and embarrassed at the gently reproachful regard of her older sister, "...it was...I mean...Kasumi..."

"Never mind," Kasumi sighed, "I suppose it was inevitable, but really...you might have waited. Well, I guess there is nothing more to be done about it, and if you must insist on doing that, then I might as well take your clothes since you obviously won't be needing them for the next hour or two. But in the future...do try and be careful. Supposing father was the one to discover you both doing this under his roof?"

With that Kasumi turned and left them staring open-eyed in her direction, a regard that both boy and girl maintained until long after Kasumi had vanished down the hallway.

At the last Ranma spoke up again, saying, "Ah...no offense, Nabiki...but...sometimes your sister scares the heck out of me."

"You and me both, Ranma-kun," Nabiki responded, then they both turned and cast wary eyes towards one another.

"Um..." Ranma glanced down, "You want me to leave?"

"Where would you go?" Nabiki asked, "She just took both of our clothes, dummy."

"Oh...ah...yeah...there is that," Ranma swallowed thickly, "So...ah...what happens now?"

Nabiki started to open her mouth, paused to think about it, then closed it again, heaving a nervous sigh, "I don't really know...I mean...I did a minute ago, but...um...well..."

"Ah...yeah..." Ranma concurred, not daring to look again in her direction.

"I...never meant things...well..." Nabiki glanced away and felt her cheeks flare to full crimson.

"But...ah...what...I mean...huh?" Ranma faintly wondered.

"My thoughts exactly," Nabiki said, trying desperately to get her nerves back under control, even as she felt her heart racing with a trembling fear that could hardly be reasoned.

"Um...well..." Ranma swallowed, "Do you think it's a good idea...I mean...us like this...?"

"Men and women take baths together all the time, Ranma-kun," Nabiki explained for his benefit, even knowing that she was lying as she added, "It's perfectly normal..."

"Normal," he repeated softly.

The silence hung between them for another long moment before Nabiki broke the silence once again, "Ranma-kun?"

"Uh...yeah?" he faintly responded.

Nabiki glanced at the ceiling tiles, hoping to distract herself as she said aloud, "You really are a man among men...I just wanted you to hear me say that."

"Ah...yeah?" Ranma responded, wondering just why it was that those softly spoken words was causing the thing between his legs to stiffen to a hardness comparable to iron, and wondering just why in the hell it was choosing that moment to act up on him, or if it would be a safe subject to ask of Nabiki, then deciding it was not worth his life to venture the question...

Continued.

Comments/Criticisms/Coitus Interruptus ala Kasumi: shadowmane

Disappointed that this did not turn into a Lemon? Don't worry, things heat up again next chapter as Ranma and Nabiki try desperately to find *something* to do to while away the next hour or so, while Ryoga coaches Akane, who is soon to have a fateful encounter of her own. Be with us next time for: "Squaring the Cube," or, "Have Black Rose Blossoms, will Cackle." Be there!

X -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

If you wish to check out my other works, Please check out my Fanfiction webpage at: ~ All related chapters of this series can be found there along with my other works.  



	12. Chapter 12

RanHearts12

The Horse and the Butterfly

By Jim Robert Bader

(Inspired by the works of Rumiko Takahashi)

Chapter Twelve.

Trips and Pratfalls

"That's very good, Akane," Ryoga said approvingly, "You're getting the hang of it, now just stay tight on your tumbles and be mindful of your execution."

Akane did a successful triple somersault then grinned wide as she extended her arms with bowling pins held up at the ready. After fifteen consecutive tries she had finally completed the maneuver flawlessly and felt ready to meet any attack that an opponent might hurl against her.

"I did it!" she declared with a happy whoop, "Ryoga, I've got it down! I know I can do this!"

"You're making great progress, Akane-san," Ryoga complimented, "Just a few more days and you should be ready for your match. Just work a bit more on your timing and you can defend yourself while readying an attack. You still need to do a little more work on your footing, but you've got the basics down, and that's what's important."

"And I owe it all to you for helping me get this far, Ryoga-kun," Akane said happily, taking a step forward without watching where she was going, "If you hadn't offered to help, I don't know what I'd-WHOOOPPP!"

"Akane-san!" Ryoga saw the girl he considered a good friend take an accidental misstep as her foot connected with a ball that she had not see underneath her. Without hesitation he lunged forward and scooped her up into his arms before she could hit the floor and possibly injure herself.

"Ryoga-kun?" Akane blinked, having found herself only moments from disaster, only to discover herself swept up into the arms of her current teacher.

"Are you all right, Akane-san?" Ryoga asked.

"Um...sure...fine..." Akane said off-handedly, wondering why her heart was racing so fast, as if she had been in genuine danger rather than comfortably safe in the arms of the powerful young man who had rushed to her rescue, "Thanks to you..."

"Hey, no need to thank me," Ryoga said as he helped her to stand upright, "But that's what I was talking about...you have to watch your footing at all times. Failure to compensate in time could cause you to twist an ankle or do other kinds of damage that will render you incapable of fighting. Just because this isn't a full contact sport is no reason to be careless."

Had Ranma spoken those words to her Akane knew that she would have gotten very angry and resentful, yet with Ryoga there was no sense that he was trying to one-up her or put her down as a fighter, only a genuine concern for her welfare, which caused Akane to feel a warmth flushing her cheeks, glancing down and realizing that this was another favor that she owed the Jusenkyo-cursed lost boy.

"I'll...try and remember to be careful in the future, Ryoga-kun," Akane said with more shyness than she might use around anyone else but Doctor Tofu, "I'm just glad you were here or who knows what might have happened..."

"You're school would probably have to forfeit," Ryoga smiled, then added wistfully, "Or Ranko would have to take your place. She is rather agile and could probably learn the basics in next to no time."

Akane frowned at that, not saying aloud what she thought about being replaced by "Ranko" as her designated alternate. Ryoga was not aware of the redheaded girl's exactly connection to Ranma, other than the crude lie that she and her other self were actually "cousins," which Nabiki had concocted to prevent anyone else from learning Ranma's secret. Since Ryoga had a Jusenkyo curse of his own he might initially sympathize with the pig-tailed "girl's" unfortunate problem, but NOT if he knew that "Ranko" was none other than his hated rival, and that could lead to even more troubles for the Tendo property values should it ever slip in conversation.

"Just forget about her," Akane growled, "Kami knows I try to. I can manage by myself without her help just fine, thank you."

"All right then," Ryoga smiled, "Well, I think that's about enough training for tonight. Better get a good night's sleep, Akane-san, and we'll start this up again when you get back from school tomorrow."

"Ryoga-kun," Akane said as she saw the lost boy start to turn away, "You really don't have to sleep out here in the dojo if you don't want to. I don't mind if you sleep as a pig in my room..."

Ryoga did not turn around to look at her as he said, "Thanks, you're too kind, but...it just wouldn't be proper for me to do that, Akane-san. Knowing about my problem as you do..."

"But I trust you, Ryoga-kun," Akane assured him, "I know you'd never deliberately do anything improper around me..."

"I know," Ryoga replied, "But it matters to me. Some things...they're just not right, even between friends. I'll be fine out here, Akane-san...I've slept in lots of place that weren't as comfortable as a dojo, and at least I have a roof over my head in case it rains."

"All right then," Akane sighed, "If that's the way you feel, Ryoga-  
kun...but...you take care, all right? And let me know if you need more blankets..."

"I'm sure your older sister will be able to get me whatever I need," Ryoga turned to smile at her, "But thank you for caring enough to ask. You have no idea what that means to someone who's wandered alone as long as I have."

Akane felt a slight skip of her heart upon hearing those words, but she managed to say, "You don't have to be alone anymore, Ryoga-kun. You have me..."

"I know," Ryoga replied, "And I'll always be grateful for your friendship, Akane-san."

Friendship. The word landed on Akane's shoulders like a sack of rice grains. That's all he thought of her right now, a friend who wanted to help him, and nothing more than that. She turned away to hide the way her cheeks flushed in embarrassment over how conflicted she was on that subject, thinking of how unfair it was to finally meet a boy as nice and polite as Ryoga, who was most definitely NOT a pervert like Ranma, and who actually cared enough about her feelings to respect her modesty at the cost of his own comfort. In truth she did not mind having him as a little piglet in her bed, she rather enjoyed the company and the warmth his small body could provide her, and being with him made her feel safe, cared for and protected, like she did not have to always be on her guard against possible encroachments on her privacy and her personal freedom.

Working closely around him for the past few days had only intensified her respect for Ryoga as both a human being and a martial artist. He had shown her so much about posture and balance, things he tended to take almost as second nature, not having to think about it at all until forced to explain to Akane some aspect of his skills in any real detail. He was strong, brave and kind, and he had a very nice face and a pleasant voice to listen to, and he only got angry when something provoked him, like a matter of honor or a personal issue. In a lot of ways he could also be so annoyingly dense and-like every other boy she had ever known-quite clueless about women, such as his clear infatuation with both Nabiki and "Ranko," the latter of which particularly incensed Akane since it implied that Ranma's cursed form was even more attractive to Ryoga than Akane!

She decided to fetch a late night snack from the kitchen and to get ready for bed at once, skipping a trip to the furo until morning, even though she was hot and sweaty from her strenuous hours of exertion. Normally a hot soak was just the thing she needed for her tired muscles, but ever since Ranma had come to live in the Tendo house the furo had all but become his private personal refuge. Honestly, the number of times that boy got soaked with cold water was amazing, and no doubt their heating bills would climb through the roof on account of that freeloader...

Odd thing was, Kasumi had insisted that Ranma and Nabiki both scrub out the furo together just the other day, as if they had done something to get it dirty. Akane did not want to speculate just **what** that might be, but when she approached Nabiki on the subject her sister was unusually evasive (okay, evasive even for Nabiki!) and preferred to tell Akane that it was none of her business.

On second thought, maybe a dip in the furo might be just what the doctor ordered, but Akane was frankly too tired to even work up much enthusiasm on the subject. A nice nap was definitely the thing she most needed, her rumbling tummy notwithstanding. At least she could have some privacy in her own room while she blissfully allowed the numbness of sleep to overcome her, and-unlike Nabiki-she did not anticipate having nocturnal visitors hanging upside down by their heels knocking on her window at all sorts of ungodly hours (and by the Kami, Akane swore, if Ranma tried anything perverted like that with her sister...)...

On second thought, maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to encourage Ranma to go the extra step with Nabiki. Akane was torn between a desire to see those two get closer together (and thus bring an end to any talk by their parents of possibly switching the engagement her way) and her reluctance to have someone like a Saotome for an in-law. If Ranma's father was any example of what he might himself turn like in a few more years, then Nabiki was more than welcome to have him, not that she could wish such a fate on her worst enemy, not even a Kuno.

Fortunately for her, Kasumi had very thoughtfully left something out for Akane to munch down on her way to the stairs. That was just like her older sister, always thoughtful and caring about others, not a conniving huckster like her other sister tended to be, and as she munched down on the riceballs that Kasumi had left out for her (amazed that "Uncle Genma" had not snagged them for himself) she indulged in some private speculation over just what sort of a match Ranma and Nabiki would make for one another. Truth to tell there were a lot similarities in their personalities that underlay their stark differences, pride and stubbornness being but two things which they shared in common. Nabiki was not given to a violent temper like Ranma, but when she held a grudge it could be pretty intimidating, and she always got even with people who crossed her in underhanded ways that were not nice to contemplate. Ranma was more direct in the way he dealt with problems and challenges, more physical than intellectual, which was actually Nabiki's forte more than Ranma's.

In fact it was rather odd what a good couple they could potentially make if they ever learned to set aside their differences and work together like a team. Surely Ranma could use someone with brains on his side to guide him away from his usual rude and impulsive behavior, and Nabiki seemed to have a real knack for putting him in his place either verbally or physically, a trick Akane greatly envied in her sister. Of course the last two days had seen a strange alteration in the personal dynamic between these two clueless baka, as though something eventful had already happened that changed the chemistry in some fundamentally different way. Ranma and Nabiki had been acting very strangely towards one another since the night following Akane's acceptance of the challenge to represent their school's gymnastic team. Akane could not quite put her finger on what it was that was different, but she had not heard either one of those two exchange a single insult or condescending line, and they even seemed to be going out of their way NOT to say anything offensive to one another.

If anything they seemed to be walking on eggshells the last few days, and Akane was starting to wonder if they really HAD gone the extra step of consummating the feelings that they so obviously had for one another. Somehow Akane did not think this was the case, however, as her instincts suggested something well short of such a monumental stage forward in the curious relationship these two had with one another. Ranma might be a pervert in other ways but he tended to act like a gutless and clueless na f whenever the subject of human sexuality reared its head, and she doubted he would have the nerve to try anything so bold as to put the moves on Nabiki. The alternative would be to suspect Nabiki of having seduced him, which certainly sounded more plausible since Akane had no illusions regarding Nabiki's moral inclinations. Still...Nabiki was the one acting hesitant and shy these days, which would hardly be the case if she had gotten her way with a hapless Ranma. Rather Akane would have expected to see a grin worthy of the cat that ate the canary if her sister had scored in such a dramatic manner...so what could it be that had these two so much on edge these days? Did they actually TRY and get it on together, only to have something go wrong at the last second? If so, then it could explain just why those two appeared so confused and deeply frustrated.

Deep thoughts such as these made Akane's head hurt, and she was much too tired to indulge in wild speculation regarding the affairs of her older sister. Better to put off until tomorrow the things that were likely to drive you crazy today was her motto, a saying she had coined as a coping reflex for adapting to the crazy affairs that came from living in a place like Nerima.

She trudged back to her room and immediately flopped down on the bed, feeling her tired muscles protest even this mild an exertion, though relief flooded through her the moment her head hit the pillow. She sighed to herself as she rolled onto her back, intending to let sleep overtake her into its comforting embrace, and only by the slightest sense of nagging urgency did she happen to open her eyes and glance up towards the figure perched over her bed, braced against the rafters...

A pony-tailed girl in a green leotard with a black rose clenched between her lips, an with a long-handled mallet braced against her back, staring down at Akane with violet-colored eyes and an intensely wild predatory expression...

Try as she might Nabiki could not get to sleep, her mind too full of wild speculations of her own, though the answer to every one of her questions invariably turned upon the point of how her own conduct reflected poorly upon her, especially in light of a just-concluded conversation between herself and Kasumi on the subject of her engagement to Saotome Ranma...

Once again she could hard Kasumi's gentle reprimand as they sat upon Nabiki's bed together, much as though her older sister really was assuming the role of a surrogate mother: "Nabiki, I want you to promise me that you'll be more careful the next time that you feel the need to do something physical with Ranma..."

"But Kasumi," Nabiki had protested for the twelfth time in two days, "Nothing happened between me and Ranma-kun. We just took a bath together...no harm in that..."

Her weak protest had died on Nabiki's lips as she saw the look Kasumi gave her, a gentle reprimand that as much as came near to calling Nabiki a blatant liar.

"I know that I haven't had that much experience around men, Nabiki," Kasumi calmly noted in her usual understated tone of voice, "But cleaning a man...down there...could hardly be regarded as proper behavior, even if he is your iinazuke..."

Nabiki had winced at this, recalling only too vividly the circumstances in which she had been caught in the act, and what her hand was doing gripping the manhood of her fianc e. Trust Kasumi to have the knack for turning even so mild a reminder as this into a hard reprimand that-for anyone but Kasumi-might have been conducted at mega-decibels interspersed with the words, "Shameless" and "Harlot."

"Ah..." Nabiki had managed to say, "About that...Ranma-kun and I were...uh...well...comparing anatomy and..."

She suddenly had a flash of what that sounded like, but before she could say anything to correct the false impression she created she heard Kasumi reply, "The Furo is not the sort of place where conduct like that should be conducted, Nabiki. For one thing it is unsanitary, for the other, what if father or someone else had fought you two together? I know for a fact, considering how intent father is about this engagement, that you would have been married on the spot with poor Ranma, and well before either one of you has had time to graduate from high school."

Nabiki blanched at the thought of this, realizing at once that it was EXACTLY what their father would have insisted upon, a literal shotgun wedding (though more likely their fathers would have used clubs instead of shotguns to enforce their will), and that meant she could kiss her single days goodbye forever if word of this should reach the ears of either Soun or Genma.

Kasumi's gentle hand laid upon Nabiki's caused the latter to look up and meet her Oneechan's expression, "I understand how it is, Nabiki, and I'm not criticizing you for wanting to do things with your future husband that might seem...a bit premature. If you really can't wait to do that with him, then I suppose I should help you out by suggesting a few place where it would be safer for you to consummate your love without causing a scandal."

"C-Consummate?" Nabiki stammered, even though she knew very well that it was EXACTLY what might have happened had Kasumi not interrupted her in the act of seducing Ranma.

"I've taken the time to read some books that I borrowed from Tofu-sama to help inform me of what to do in matters such as this," Kasumi continued as she produced a few booklets that she had brought with her for this meeting, "These will fill you in on what you should be mindful of, Imotochan, books on venereal disease, teenaged pregnancy, prenatal health care, special diets for pregnancy what signs to look out for to know if you are pregnant..."

"Pregnant?" Nabiki's eyes got even wider.

"I've also gotten the number of some support services that council women and can help provide voluntary care and guidance of when and if you do become pregnant," Kasumi went on as if uninterrupted, "Tofu-sensei also recommended to me a few gynecologists whom you may wish to consult with so that you know how to take care of yourself while nursing a baby..."

"But I'm not-!"

"Of course the odds are only one in four of your getting pregnant during the first year of having sexual relations," Kasumi blithely noted, "But it never hurts to be on the safe side, which is why you should start keeping track of your periods, so you can estimate which days you may be more fertile, which are days to be avoided unless you intend on getting pregnant..."

"But I'm..."

"There are a number of things about a woman's body that you have to be aware about even in the event that you want to get pregnant, Imotochan..."

"But..."

"For one thing, your hips and pelvis may not have widened sufficiently at this time to present an unobstructed path through her cervical cavity, the place where the baby must pass through in order to be safely delivered, unless you got for a Caesarian section..."

"And, of course," Kasumi continued, "It's better to wait a few years for this reason, to improve the chances that you'll enjoy a smooth and normal pregnancy, thus giving a strong son, or daughter, to the future of both of our houses..."

Nabiki's eyes just stayed wide open with shock, her rational self momentarily at a loss to say anything useful.

"But, then again, that may be getting ahead of ourselves somewhat," Kasumi noted, "It's always a good idea to be prepared and to plan ahead, but these things happen in their normal time and it would be pointless to speculate in advance of the day when you and Ranma-kun become parents together. I guess we can both assume that you would have a healthy child since the Saotome line does appear to be healthy. Of course, considering some of the wild places where they have been you can never be too sure that they haven't picked up anything contagious..."

"Contagious?" Nabiki managed to blurt out.

"Of course, I can't speak for Uncle Genma," Kasumi continued, "But I rather doubt that Ranma-kun could have picked up on any STDs...that's Sexually Transmitted Diseases in medical parlance...but as I said, I don't think it's too likely that he would have contracted anything unless he's been to one of those places in Asia where they aren't very careful about such things..."

"But..." Nabiki sputtered, wanting to protest that Ranma was entirely healthy, at least so far as she could determine such matters on a close, intimate inspection...

"Still, it never hurts to err on the side of caution," Kasumi said pleasantly, then handed Nabiki something else that left her younger sister totally speechless, "Just keep a few of these on hands in case they become necessary. It won't totally block out the transmission of diseases through the semen, but anything that diminishes the chance of something undesirable happening can only be a good thing, hai?"

Nabiki had just gawked at the object that her sister had given her so blithely, wondering where in all of Japan Kasumi could have gotten a hold of a box of latex condoms. Most Japanese spurned the things and would not even mention them in polite company. Nabiki would sooner have expected to be given a live hand grenade from Kasumi than anything so...so...so...practical and yet daring...

Even now thinking of how flustered she had been during that encounter, Nabiki had to grudgingly concede that Kasumi had a very valid point. It was much too early in their relationship for Ranma and Nabiki to be fooling around in such a manner, and not just because it might lead to something...unintentional on both of their parts. There was the little matter of their both being too young for settling down just yet, and with school still an issue for both of them, to say nothing of the possible scandal and the loss of employment opportunities for the career Nabiki might once have enjoyed...

She flushed crimson, unable to help herself for thinking such things even in the privacy of her own bedroom. The issue of premarital sex aside, Nabiki had to squarely confront the fact that she had provoked a situation whose consequences could have proven to be disastrous for both parties, and-worse still-she had dragged a clueless Ranma along for the ride (she winced at her unfortunate choice of metaphors) and had subjected him to cruel and thoughtless teasing, all so she could prove to herself that he was a pretty nice guy after all and not just some opportunistic jock out for her body...

...Well...she was rather certain that he did rather favor her body, but Ranma had not been the one to initiate matters, and that made Nabiki experience a rare and unusual bout of guilty conscience, knowing full well what her actions would make her out to seem like in the eyes of another. If Akane were to hear of this then Nabiki would never hear the end of it, and if her father were to learn that she had dragged her reluctant fianc e into an ALMOST sexual encounter...

Nabiki paused to think about it. Would it really be so bad getting married to Saotome Ranma? She blushed to think of it, but she was having a difficult time seeing a downside to becoming his wife. After all, the boy was brave, handsome, rudely chivalrous and had a really nice...ah...and then the rest of his endowments were certainly nothing to scoff about. (She could still remember the way her mouth had watered at the almost-prospect, and here she would have thought that women only behaved like that in porn movies and adult-labeled anime and manga...)...

"What is wrong with me?" Nabiki said aloud, "He's just a guy, he's not very mature, and he's a barbarian in every other sense of the word...so...why do I like him?"

She heard no answer to her softly spoken entreaty, nor had she expected to hear a voice from above explaining for her benefit what great cosmic plan was behind the seeming string of coincidences that had brought her into a relationship with a boy like her Ranma-kun...

HER Ranma-kun? Now she definitely knew that she was in trouble!

"If it had been anybody else but Ranma..." she left the rest of her sentence go unspoken, knowing that another boy with more **normal** impulses would not have been so slow to react to her subtle charms had she invited one to take a bath with her in the furo. Had it been another boy, Nabiki knew well that she would have been in serious trouble. As it was she had felt safe and control the whole time that she was with Ranma, even after her foiled attempt at seduction, when the both of them had soaked in the hot water for over an hour trying desperately hard not to think about what ALMOST had happened.

Ranma had been the perfect gentleman the whole time (well, nearly perfect since he tended to stick his foot in his mouth with every other sentence...but Nabiki was starting to admit that she found this aspect of his nature rather charming). He had not tried to initiate anything, had stayed on his side of the furo and was polite to her (well, polite for him anyway) the whole time, even as Nabiki tried furiously NOT to think of his hard physique and raw animal magnetism while pretending to engage him in idle chatter until they both had started to relax a bit and get used to being naked with one another. After that it had become a lot easier to ignore the way her pulse raced whenever she thought he was about to move closer towards her, every shift in his position being magnified into an attempt to ravish her...not that she would need much persuasion to be ravished at that point since the longer she was with him the more Nabiki felt secure in calling him her fianc e...

She lifted one hand in the now of the present and stared at it, remembering what it had been like to hold Ranma's cock between her slender fingers. It had been surprisingly firm and hard in her grasp, almost like an arm being flexed with no hint of soft flaccidness or the squishy feeling that she would have expected. He really must have been unconsciously aroused at that moment because it really did feel like a "boner" in her grasp. It was the first time that Nabiki had ever looked upon a man's naked organ and she had been fascinated at its attractive quality, the mystery it represented, the feeling of a fifth appendage that all men were equipped with (yet few knew how to control with any fervor). In most men it was the part that did the majority of their thinking, and yet for Ranma it was an organ sorely in disuse, and one that needed exercise, and it just so happened that Nabiki had a socket that would fit it nicely, a warmth sheath in which to rest such a large Katana, especially if she slid it in and out a few times to work his blade properly into her scabbard...

Nabiki caught herself once again, this time noticing the way her other hand had absently drifted down to a spot just nestled slightly lower than her belly. She felt a tingling sensation down there, a sensation that made her uncomfortably squirm with the need for relief. She willed that hand to proceed with what it had been doing and waited with hushed breath as her fingers found their way to that magical spot that was most need of their attention. She closed her eyes and moaned very softly, surrendering herself to the caress of her own hand as she sought relief from the soreness of privation...

"What are you doing here?" Akane's voice demanded through the thin wall that separated their bedrooms, "Quit it!"

Nabiki halted in what she was doing, her eyes flying wide with shock. Could Akane have heard her moan just now? Did her little sister have any idea what was going on in Nabiki's mind, or was she suspecting the (not quite unthinkable) possibility that she had slipped Ranma into her bedroom in the dead of night?

"Let me go, you!" Akane cried again.

This time another voice calmly answered, "Oh no, I think not. I rather like seeing you this way, Tendo Akane. I want to remember you just the way you are..."

Nabiki was already out of bed and on her feet even as she placed that second voice, realization of what was happening banishing all thought of her erotic fantasies concerning herself and her iinazuke as the more immediate concern for her little sister took precedence. Ordinarily she would prefer to leave Akane to fight her own battles, but as the second voice belonged to Kuno Kodachi (about whom Nabiki had neglected to give sufficient advanced warning) Nabiki felt the urgency to make up for lost time and lend what support she could to Akane...

Akane, meanwhile, was struggling against the ribbon that had wrapped itself around her body. Her assailant wielded the thing like it was a thing alive, and with its serpentine coils holding her arms pinned to her sides there was little that Akane could do but fume helplessly at her crazed attacker.

"Fight fair!" Akane growled, "You're cheating?"

"Cheating?" the dark haired girl in the green leotard responded, uttering a crazed laugh before saying, "I have merely come to test your worth as an opponent, and if you can't work yourself free from so simple a maneuver, then you are not worthy of being my rival. But I shall be lenient with you and spare you the worst of my wrath...if you promise to pull out now from our rhythmic gymnastics match."

Akane grit her teeth and growled, "You're Kuno Kodachi...my sister warned me about you..."

"Obviously not well enough or you would know better than to cross paths with the beautiful flower of innocence, the Black Rose of Saint Hebereke, Captain Kuno Kodachi..."

"Cross paths with you?" Akane fumed, "Hey, who's ambushing who in whose room, huh?"

"How absurd," Kodachi sneered, "You truly are a pathetic opponent..."

"Akane-chan!" Nabiki cried as she burst into the room wearing nothing but her nightie, "Are you all right? Is Kodachi...oh dear..." she halted in her tracks as she caught sight of Akane's wrapped up condition.

"Couldn't be better," Akane said as she felt the tension on the ribbon slacken, allowing her to shrug free of its embrace, at which point she gripped the ribbon between her own hands, adding, "Time for a little payback..."

"Huh?" Nabiki belatedly realized that there had been some resistance behind the door when she had pushed it open, and now she realized that a hand was projecting out from behind the door, twitching slightly with muscle tension, and the manicured fingernails of that hand were sporting an off-green color of nail polish.

"Opps," she belatedly said, moving the door back in order to see Kuno Kodachi pressed up against the wall like a smashed bug with an appropriately stunned expression.

"Er...I meant to do that," Nabiki said after a pause of only a moment.

Kodachi started to recover her wits just as Akane looped the ribbon around the other girl's own arms, then with a nasty smile said, "You like playing with ribbons, here, have a spin on the house!"

And with that the youngest Tendo sister yanked hard on the ribbon, pulling Kodachi forward and spinning her around like a top. When Kodachi was in position Akane lashed out with a side-kick and sent her unwanted nocturnal guest crashing through her window and soaring out into koi pond one flight down.

"Oh...wonderful aim, Akane," Nabiki said sarcastically, "Now who do you think is going to be paying for that window?"

"Put it on my tab," Akane snorted, "And send the bill to the Kunos. By the way, thanks for helping out back there..."

"Um...don't mention it," Nabiki said, "So...about Kodachi...I meant to tell you before that she likes to ambush her opponents before matches, and she's even been known to sneak up on them while they sleep..."

"Gee, really?" Akane asked, "I never would have guessed. Next time maybe you could tell me that before she pays me a visit?"

"Right," Nabiki said, "On the whole you got off lucky this time. Usually Kodachi prefers to use toxins, sleeping powders, muscle relaxants and paralyzing powders, all derived from Black Rose extracts, to put her opponents out of commission. I guess she was just trying to scare you off with a warning, or possibly just mess you up a bit to render you hors de combat."

"Gee, that makes me feel soooo good," Akane snorted, "What a nutcase. She's even worse than her brother."

"And that's what you'll be up against in your coming match," Nabiki patted her sister on the shoulder, "Just wanted you to know what to expect since she'll be taking you a lot more seriously in your next encounter."

"I'll keep that in mind," Akane said, "Let's hope the pond cools her off so she doesn't cause any more trouble."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that too much," Nabiki said, "Kodachi may not be long on good sense, but she has sense enough to slink back home with her tail between her legs rather than risk losing what's left of her dignity...that is, unless she finds something else to catch her interest."

"Heh, not much chance of that," Akane shrugged, "Only thing out there are the boys, Ranma and Ryoga."

"Oh yeah," Nabiki said, "I think Ranma's out on the roof right now doing his meditations, or something like that, and Ryoga's sleeping in the dojo if I remember right..."

There was a brief pause before both sisters turned to look at one another with shocked expressions, then as one they chorused, "THE BOYS...!"

Several minutes before this...

"Oh man..." Ranma sighed as he studied the stars, laying back on the roof over Nabiki's room and thinking of ways in which he might break the verbal log-jam that seemed to have hovered between them since their time in the furo, "What am I gonna say to her? I ain't no good at this stuff...why can't I say what I mean when I talk to Nabiki?"

He had been aware of the tension between them over the last few days, just as he knew that Nabiki was feeling as much of the weight of their impasse as he himself was, though he could hardly frame it in those terms. In truth he was confused because this was a level of sparring for which he had no training. It was not that there was any hostility felt in the time they were together, it was rather that they were trying desperately NOT to say anything offensive, and for someone raised as Ranma had been, to treat verbal insults as though they were a backhand form of compliment, it was not a natural situation. Same with Nabiki, whose acid tongue and razor wits could do more damage than fists when applied with her usual incisive humor, and though Ranma was often the target of such barbs he would have much preferred that to silence or the kind of mincing delicacy that had Nabiki had employed around him since what happened in the furo.

In truth they had gotten along very well while floating naked in the warm water, slowly easing up and growing more comfortable around one another as they talked about stuff and started to relax a bit and accept their mutually naked status. Even so Ranma had been very much consciously aware that an extremely attractive girl was sitting only a meter away from where he was sitting, and that she did not have a stitch of clothing about her. Nor had he for that matter, and it was only by the grace of the hot water that he was in the right gender, though he probably would have felt safer had he been female.

Odd how much that had bothered him, seeing as he was used to seeing his own naked body when his cursed turned him into "Ranko." It was not that he was offended at the sight of her-far from it! He had thought her beautiful even before he saw Nabiki without any clothes on, but seeing her in the flesh with her breasts projecting outward, looking down the length of her lean body to the patch of brown fur that covered her sex, he was overcome by indescribable sensations, ones that caused his manhood to stiffen up like a rod, and that definitely had made him glad that he was sitting down instead of standing above water. Nabiki had acted strangely to seeing his dick curving upward and had even felt compelled at one point to reach out with a hand and...

Ranma swallowed and shifted his legs, feeling the stiffness return to his loins as he thought about the feel of Nabiki's hand gripping his manhood. At first he thought she would rip it off for frightening her, but then he had seen the hungry expression in her face, the emotion of lust in her eyes, and the way her attention seemed riveted on his hardened prick, and the way she licked her lips in anticipation almost made him think that she was going to bite it off and swallow it whole! He even had a mental image of Nabiki taking his rod between her lips and...doing things that caused his mind to go into full shutdown. With an effort he wrenched his mind away, but still he felt a quiet thrill at knowing Nabiki had praised him afterwards, even if, at the time, he had no real idea of what she was saying.

"Oh man..." he sighed, resigned to spending the rest of the night under the stars with no decision, much as he had done the previous two evenings, sleeping above Nabiki's bedroom, afraid to venture to her window and yet strangely reluctant to leave the place of his silent vigil. They had oddly become closer on account of (if not in spite of) what happened, and yet still there was a wall of separation between himself and his iinazuke that he thought he might never be able to cross. She was just too beautiful, intelligent, witty and yet infuriating for him to ever figure out, and the most he could hope to do was to hover near to her and hope that she might one day notice that he really and truly liked her...

"Yeah, right," he sniffed, "Like I could like a cobra...or a mercenary like her," he turned to one side and rested his chin on one hand, "Why does she gotta be so difficult? It ain't like I started all that or tried to take her clothes off or nothing weird like that...so why's it my fault all of a sudden? Does she even still trust me?"

What a joke that was, even as he said those words. Nabiki had not accused him of anything, yet he felt as though he had been accused of doing SOMETHING wrong, especially after the way Kasumi had come to talk to him, which was really, really confusing...

"Ranma-kun," the older Tendo sister had said, "It's all well and good if you want to be with Nabiki since you are her iinazuke, but...please be careful. You're both so very young, there's no reason to rush into things. I know Nabiki may act mature for her age, but she's still just a teenager and she doesn't fully grasp everything that could happen..."

What followed then was a lengthy sermon, interspersed with admonitions of social responsibility and the medical terms about pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases and other stuff that Ranma only half understood, though a lot of it did sound pretty important. Ranma might not have known what all the fuss was about had he been slow to pick up on the fact that Kasumi obviously believed that something HAD happened, but that just further piqued his curiosity since he had no real idea what he was supposed to do that could generate such intense interest.

"I'd never do nothing to hurt Nabiki like that," Ranma murmured softly to himself, falling up one fist with his other hand, "And if anybody tried...I'd kill 'em..." his mind briefly flashed to the image of Senzenen Mikado attempting to kiss his iinazuke, and the churning rage that boiled up inside him at the memory of that encounter. Mikado had gotten off light, and if he ever tried that again he'd get pounded into hamburger.

Ranma's anger came and went like a cool breeze, leaving him even more confused than ever as he marveled at the intensity of his own emotions. Why did he feel such a strong territorial urge whenever he was around the middle Tendo sister? Nabiki could be really annoying and rude to him at times, and there were days when he almost wished she was a man so he could show her how to be civil...but the thought of doing any violence around her just left him numb with revulsion. He could never harm a head on her head, no matter what she might do or say that might make him angry. She meant a lot more to him than he had ever realized until now...and without some challenge or distraction to keep him from thinking hard about it he also made a startling discovery, one that called into question his belief that he was NOT a hentai.

The realization that he wanted to see her naked again...to take another bath with her and...maybe even find out what it was that he was missing from the picture...

The sound of breaking glass and splintering wood brought Ranma to his feet with a jolt, just in time to see someone go flying out one window of the Tendo household. Instantly his combat senses warned him that there had been an attack on one of the Tendo sisters, and before that thought was fully framed in his mind he was leaping from the roof of the second story, seeing a form go splashing in the koi pond and having a momentary dread that it might be Nabiki...

Meanwhile Ryoga was still sitting up and staring off into the night, wondering what a wanderer such as himself was doing camping out in the dojo of a nice family like the Tendos. He liked and respected them individually and thought that the deserved a better fate than what life appeared to have dealt them, what with losing the mother of the household at an early age for Mr. Soun's three lovely daughters. Not having seen his own mother or father in quite a while he was quite naturally concerned about the effect this must have had on each of the sisters, Kasumi assuming the role of the mother while her two younger sisters had drawn somewhat inward to face life in two very different directions.

For Akane the result had obviously been a desire to smash out at the world, to throw herself into the art and to use it as a means of gaining control over her life. Ryoga knew that feeling well and could identify with her obsession, even if he could see that, in her it had not proven sufficient motivation to teach her what she needed to know about fighting.

With Nabiki on the other hand...ah...there Ryoga was at a loss what to do or say about the middle Tendo sister. Nabiki had drawn inward even as Akane externalized her anger, and she had buried her pain beneath a layer of dissemble and evasion. Instead of lashing out at everything she used her wits to manipulate others indo doing what she wanted, a sad state of affairs that could only serve to reinforce her paranoia. In the brief time that he had known her, Ryoga had come to realize that the middle sister not only had a heart but also was supremely lonely and was in desperate need of a friend, someone whom she could trust not to take advantage of her vulnerability and isolation. She needed a sympathetic shoulder to lean upon, someone who could be her faithful ally and who could reassure her that there were others who cared about her and would look out for her welfare.

By what cosmic jest of the fates she should be bound in pledge to marry a creep like Ranma was simply beyond Ryoga's ability to comprehend. Ranma had all of the wrong qualities and could only be trusted to break a promise once it had been given. Such a wretch did not deserve the affections of a beautiful girl like Nabiki, in fact, had Ryoga not promised to withhold from violence, for this reason alone he would seek to rid the world of the annoying pest by pounding him so flat that he would resemble road kill...

All at once the sound of a loud crashing drew Ryoga around to stare in the direction of the Tendo household, and that was when he saw a figure go plummeting into the koi pond. Not knowing the identity of the hurtling body he quite naturally leaped to his feet and started racing to the rescue.

Fortunately for him the spray of water was long since spent by the time he arrived there, but as he started to detect a body floating among the fishes he sensed the arrival of his rival, who doubtlessly also had been drawn to the sounds of a commotion. Ryoga flashed an annoyed look at Ranma when the latter said, "Hey, what happened here, Man? Did somebody get hurt?"

"I don't know," Ryoga scowled, trying his level best to keep his temper in check, pointing to the feminine body only just then rising up to the surface, "But I think she's unconscious."

Ranma started to reach towards the water only to hesitate at the last second. He belatedly realized that he would change in front of Ryoga's eyes if he let himself get wet and-to his disgust-imagined the derisive snort that his rival would hurl at him if he discovered the connection between Ranma and "Ranko." He was so disgusted that he failed to see a similar hesitation pass across the features of the other boy, but-fortunately for the both of them-  
the next moment the apparent victim of the fall managed to recover consciousness and broke her way back to the surface.

Kodachi gasped for air and started coughing, feeling the delayed effect of being kicked in the stomach by a mule, or-in this case-an irate martial artist. She just starting to sputter aloud, "The never of that hussy...doing that to me...!"

"Are you all right?"

Kodachi froze and looked up in surprise, seeing a friendly hand being extended towards her, and by following the arm attached to that hand she discovered a very attractive young man looking down at her with concern in his expression.

"Nani?" she asked in faint surprise and interest.

"What are you waiting for, Ranma?" another male voice, this one sounded faintly disgusted, drew Kodachi's eye to see yet another handsome boy standing off to one side glaring at the first boy with undisguised jealousy and derision, "Can't you see she needs help, or are you too unmanly to care about how wet she is?"

"Hey, mind your own business, Ryoga," the first boy snapped, "I don't see you rushing forward to volunteer yourself. Besides, she looks like she's healthy enough, though maybe you could do something useful like go fetch her some towels to dry off with."

"Why don't you do that, Ranma?" the second boy snorted, "I can stay here and see if she'll be all right."

"Um...excuse me?" Kodachi asked, looking from one boy to the other while continuing to wade shin-deep in the koi pond.

"She looks all right to me," Ranma turned to squarely confront the other boy, "She's just a little wet is all, so go fetch Kasumi."

"You go fetch her, you...Hentai!" Ryoga shot back.

Ranma's eyes got very side at that, "What did you just call me?"

"You already have a wonderful girl like Nabiki...and you want me to leave you alone so you can spend time with another woman?" Ryoga glared while baring his fangs, his accumulated resentment boiling at once to the surface.

"What are you talking about?" Ranma shot back, "What has this got to do with Nabiki?"

"I knew it!" Ryoga cried as he balled his fists, "You're trying to go behind her back, you scum!?

"That's it!" Ranma swore, "I ain't putting up with any more out of you, clown! You're going down hard for that!"

"Like I'm so impressed," Ryoga declared, and then he drew back a fist and cried, "Ranma, for what you've done and what you're about to do YOU DESERVE NO MERCY! DIIIEEE!"

With that the two boys rushed at each other and began exchanging furious punches and kicks, even as Kodachi stood to one side and stared appreciatively at the sight of the two handsome young men going at it with powerful blows that were exchanged with great speed, coordination and timing.

"Oh my..." she murmured faintly, "Are they fighting over me? Oh dear...my beauty has finally done it, driven men to distraction! But what is a fair, untouched flower such as I to do when I have clearly afflicted two such fine specimens of manhood with the spell cast by my charms? Oh...how could I even choose between them? They both are so very...handsome..."

Ryoga connected with a fist that knocked Ranma back for several meters, but the other boy shrugged off the punch like it was nothing and came back with a flying leap that connected with a foot to Ryoga's face, which tumbled the other boy over.

"Oh, this is so exciting!" Kodachi declared with girlish glee, "They move with such supple ease and daring. But if the goes on one of them might damage the other...I simply must put a stop to this before they hurt each other...this much energy could be put to better uses. But what to do that could affect to regain their attention? Men in the aroused embrace of Ares are so difficult to manage...my dear brother, for example..."

Kodachi considered several options even as Nabiki and Akane raced to the bottom of the stairs, drawn by the sounds of the commotion in the gardens. Kodachi had her roses on hand, but those had gotten wet during her landing and most probably would be less than effective. Fortunately she did have a bag of sleeping powder that was in a waterproofed container, and that sounded like just the thing she needed to bring an end to things, so she fished this out and prepared to hurl it even as the two Tendo sisters arrived on the scene and took sight of the ensuing mayhem.

"Oh no," Nabiki groaned.

"Are those at it again?" Akane asked in dismay, only to catch side of the third figure as she pointed and said, "Hey...what's Kodachi up to...?"

Unable to choose which man to use her powder upon, Kodachi simply lobbed the bag into the space between the two combatants, choosing a moment when there was a sufficient lull to allow her lob to fall into position just as the two rushed at each other again and collided in the center. The bag got pressed between a fist and an arm raised to block the punch, and it burst open wide in a cloud of dust that was immediately inhaled by the two combatants.

Almost at once Ranma and Ryoga lost consciousness, sleep causing their eyelids to droop even as their muscles became relaxed and they slumped to the ground like a couple of stringless puppets. Kodachi stepped out of the koi pond to admire her handiwork, then caressed her chin with a hand and said, "Well, at least they're quite now, but it's no good for me having them both be like this..."

"What the heck are you doing?" Akane demanded as she came lurching out of the house and into the garden, "Get away from them, you Witch!"

Kodachi glared and said, "You again? You try my patience..."

"I'm trying YOUR patience?" Akane said incredulously, "And what the heck did you just do to Ryoga and Ranma?"

"I merely quieted these boys down a bit so they didn't hurt themselves," Kodachi assumed a sultry air and posed herself accordingly, "Is that a problem for you?"

"I warned you about her, Akane," Nabiki said as she caught up with her sister, "Don't let that lucky kick you got in fool you. Kodachi's quick and resourceful and most definitely NOT to be trusted..."

"Oh my...is that Tendo Nabiki I see at your side?" Kodachi fanned herself with a hand, "How droll. A common mercenary who employs her wits to scrounge for the crumbs and leavings of her fellow students, not least of whom is my idiot brother..."

"Mercenary?" Nabiki bridled, "I may let Ranma-kun get away with saying that, but..."

"Ranma-kun?" Kodachi said with more interest, glancing down at the two fallen boys and taking notice of the one with the red shirt, not the yellow, "Ah yes...one of these two...that one, I believe, the handsome boy with the warrior's pig-tail. What is he to you, might I ask?"

"My client," Nabiki said stiffly.

"She means her iinazuke," Akane revealed, unable to resist watching Nabiki suffer a major eyebrow twitch as this was mentioned, "It was arranged by our Dad and Mister Saotome..."

"Iinazuke?" Kodachi reacted with dismay, "You, a scrawny, skinny wretch like you? You would dare stake a claim to such a handsome specimen of masculinity? How dare you! How dare you, I say! Such a thing is inhuman! I simply must rescue this poor boy from your foul clutches..."

"HEY!" Nabiki started to lunge forward but for a restraining arm thrust in her past by her sister.

"Let me handle this one, Nabiki," Akane assured the older girl before turning a glare at the pony-tailed gymnast, "For your information, Kuno-san, Nabiki and Ranma happen to be in love with one another..." she ignored the strangled noise of Nabiki choking on those words and continued, "...And you don't have a claim on anybody, so why don't you leave while you can still do so upright?"

"No claim you say?" Kodachi mused, indicating Ryoga with the toe of one bare foot, "Then what of this handsome young bull? I believe his name is..."

"Ryoga-kun?" Akane reacted with surprise.

"Oho," Kodachi smiled in amusement, "So that's the way it is, eh? You want this worthy for yourself. Well then...how about we make things interesting, set down terms for our impending match?"

"Terms?" Akane blinked, "What...?"

"You want this boy for yourself?" Kodachi declared haughtily, "Then you'll have to fight me for the privilege, and the winner will have the honor of dating him, and this other boy as well can be the extra incentive to go along with the package."

"What?" Nabiki reacted, "That's ridiculous, insane! Ranma-kun isn't any part of your game..."

"Yeah, and Ryoga's got nothing to do with this either!" Akane insisted, "You can't make people into bargaining chips for your games!"

"And why not may I ask?" Kodachi asked, "Are you afraid of losing your claim when you meet defeat at my hands? Or have you given up already? If so, then you are unworthy of such fine specimen of warriors and should renounce your claims altogether!"

"Hey, I'm not afraid of you!" Akane insisted, "I'll meet you anytime, anywhere, and I'll send you packing!"

"Splendid," Kodachi smiled, "Then you accept my challenge. Meet me in three days, Tendo Akane, and you will learn who is truly worthy of being the girlfriend of your Ryoga. And Nabiki...you're a gambler by trade, the same will go for your claims as Ranma iinazuke."

And with that the gymnast produced a ribbon and began twirling it in a spiral, unleashing a swarm of black rose petals that were tossed up into the vortex and spat towards the two Tendo sisters in a hail of flower power. That the petals were still wet made them stick to articles of clothing and bare skin as Nabiki and Akane raised their arms to protect their faces, but at last the storm grew weaker and passed, and in its wake they opened eyes to find no Kodachi anywhere in evidence within their garden...only the haunting lilt of her maniacal laughter, which echoed down the street for a few more lingering moments.

"Ugh," Nabiki winced as she stared at the petals now adhering to her nightgown, then with a sigh she turned to Akane and said, "Now you see what you're up against? I told you she wasn't playing with a full deck, Akane. Akane-chan?" she blinked upon seeing her sister's furious expression.

"That...Witch!" Akane swore, "No way am I gonna lose to the likes of her in three days!"

"Ah...right," Nabiki paused before asking, "Mind telling me what that business was about you and Ryoga-kun?"

"Huh?" Akane went from wrathful to startled, then a trace of guilt shone about her eyes as she said, "Uhhh...ah, well..."

"Never mind," Nabiki sighed, "Help me get the boys inside the dojo, then let's tie them up with something until they agree to calm down and behave for the rest of the night...and then we can talk strategy for how you're going to kick that Psycho-bitch's rich ass all the way from her to the Kuno mansion."

"Ah...right," Akane agreed at once, grateful, for once, to her sister for giving her such a convenient excuse to quietly change the subject...

Continued.

Comments/Criticisms/Claim Forms for Boyfriend Exchanges: shadowmane

The battle lines are drawn as Akane and Kodachi face each other in the arena and at stake are the fates of Ranma and Ryoga, who are wondering just how they got turned into the ante for this particular catfight. Be here next time as Nabiki counts the proceeds in, "As you Lick It," or, "A Shrewing of the Tame!" Be there!

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